Before researching for this blog post, I thought cybernetics was merely the study of technologically advanced prosthetic limbs. It's pretty funny to look back on that.
As far as I understand it now, cybernetics has many different definitions that have been evolving for a long time. In general, it is about systems - specifically, the control and observation of systems and networks. In second-order cybernetics the focus is not only on the system being observed but also on the system observing it (1). For instance, among social scientists, it is understood that observations are influenced by the nature of the observer, rather than observations existing independently of the observer. This relates to the philosophy of constructivism, which asserts that "models are not passive reflections of reality, but active constructions by the subject" because our understanding of systems is based on our ability to create models of them (2). It is also concerned with feedback and recurisveness within systems, such as when theories in social sciences influence the systems about which the theories are created. Therefore it is teleological, taking into account the purpose of models and their modelers (3, 1).
Overall it is a very theoretical field and not established as a well-recognized discipline. People are more interested in studying specific applications of some of its principles, such as in neural networks and artificial intelligence.
----------------------------------
1. Umpleby, Stuart A. "Definitions of Cybernetics". The Larry Richards Reader 1997–2007 (PDF). pp. 9–11. Web. < ftp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Papers_Umpleby/Science-Cybernetics.txt >.
2. Francis Heylighen, and Cliff Joslyn (2002). "Cybernetics and Second Order Cybernetics", in: R.A. Meyers (ed.), Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.), Vol. 4, (Academic Press, San Diego), p. 155-169. < http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Cybernetics-EPST.pdf >
3. Johnson, Barnabas. "The Cybernetics of Society". 6 April 2016.
Cybernetics
1. Define "cybernetics"
2. How has cybernetics changed since the 1960s?
3. Define the 4 most importnat attributes of a cybernetic system
No comments:
Post a Comment