Difference between revisions of "Cybernetics"
From Internet User Guide
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Cybernetics is the study of control and communication in physical, biological and social systems. | Cybernetics is the study of control and communication in physical, biological and social systems. | ||
| − | Cybernetics covers any and all systems that use feedback. It is thus closely related to the study of electronic networks, computer science, robotics, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. These relationships explain the contemporary tendency to associate cybernetics with information technology in general, and the [[Internet]] in particular. | + | Cybernetics covers any and all systems that use feedback. It is thus closely related to the study of electronic networks, computer science, robotics, artificial intelligence and cognitive science. These relationships explain the contemporary tendency to associate cybernetics with information technology in general, and with the [[Internet]] in particular. |
==Origin of the term Cybernetics== | ==Origin of the term Cybernetics== | ||
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Key steps in the development of the science of cybernetics were: | Key steps in the development of the science of cybernetics were: | ||
*Harold S. Black working in 1927 at Bell Telephone Laboratories on the use of negative feedback to control amplifiers launched the development of control systems in electronics | *Harold S. Black working in 1927 at Bell Telephone Laboratories on the use of negative feedback to control amplifiers launched the development of control systems in electronics | ||
| − | *Biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy gave at the University of Chicago | + | *Biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy gave in 1938 at the University of Chicago his first lecture about General System Theory as a methodology that is valid for all sciences |
*John von Neumann in the early 1940's developed thought-experiments about cellular automata, leading to the concept of self replication, which cybernetics later adopted as a core concept | *John von Neumann in the early 1940's developed thought-experiments about cellular automata, leading to the concept of self replication, which cybernetics later adopted as a core concept | ||
*Norbert Wiener during the Second World War studied the use of negative feedback in electronic circuits to control anti-aircraft gun mounts | *Norbert Wiener during the Second World War studied the use of negative feedback in electronic circuits to control anti-aircraft gun mounts | ||
