Professional Documents
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Development of
Cybernetics
The History and
The History and Development of Cybernetics
Development of
Cybernetics
Leonardo DaVinci
Leonardo Da Vinci was a leader in
the fields of painting . . .
. . . sculpture . . .
. . . anatomy . . .
. . . architecture . . .
. . . weapons engineering, and . . .
. . . aeronautical engineering. This
is his sketch for a 16th century
flying machine . . .
. . . and for a parachute in case
the machine broke down.
Complexity
As time passed, the systems that humans were concerned with became . . .
. . . more and more complicated.
Transportation systems alone
have become more complex . . .
. . . and more complex . . .
. . . and more complex . . .
. . . and more complex . . .
. . . as have energy systems.
Some people have suggested that technology . . .
. . . is advancing so rapidly it . . .
. . . is outpacing our ability to control it.
This question was of interest to a handful of people in the 1940s who were the
pioneers in a field that has become known as Cybernetics, the science of the
regulation of systems.
Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary
science that looks at any and all
systems from molecules . . .
. . . to galaxies, with special attention to
machines, animals and societies.
Cybernetics is derived from the
Greek word for steersman or
helmsman, who provides the
control system for a boat or ship.
This word was coined in 1948 and defined as a science by Norbert
Wiener, who was born in 1894 and died in 1964. He became known as
the Father of Cybernetics.
Wiener was an applied mathematician, biologist, and electrical engineer. He
worked during World War II on the radar-guided anti-aircraft gun.
He connected a special
radar to the gun so that
it was aimed
automatically at the
enemy aircraft. After
the gun was fired, the
radar quickly
determined the
changing location of
the plane and re-aimed
the gun until the plane
was shot down.
The system imitated human functions and performed them more effectively.
Feedback
Furnace Turns
Off
. . . before a temperature
sensor in the thermostat
triggers the furnace to turn off.
Room Temperature Rises to 700
Furnace Turns
Off
The furnace will remain off until
the temperature of the room has
fallen to 66 degrees . . .
The sensor provides a feedback loop of information that allows the system to
detect a difference from the desired temperature of 68 degrees and to make a
change to correct the error. As with the anti-aircraft gun and the airplane, this
system consisting of the thermostat, the heater and the room is said to
regulate itself through feedback and is a self-regulating system.
The human body is one of the
richest sources of examples of
feedback that leads to the
regulation of a system. For
example, when your stomach is
empty, information is passed to
your brain.
When you have taken corrective action, by eating, your brain is similarly notified
that your stomach is satisfied.
In a few hours, the process starts all over again. This feedback loop continues
throughout our lives.
Time
Stomach Person
Feels Full Eats
The human body is such a marvel
of self-regulation that early
cyberneticians studied its
processes and used it as a model
to design machines that were self-
regulating. One famous machine
called the homeostat was
constructed in the 1940s by a
British scientist, Ross Ashby.
Just as the human body maintains
a 98.6 degree temperature the
homeostat could maintain the
same electrical current, despite
changes from the outside.
Homeostasis
The homeostat, the human being, and the thermostat all are said to maintain
homeostasis or equilibrium, through feedback loops of various kinds. It does not
matter how the information is carried just that the regulator is informed of
some change which calls for some kind of adaptive behavior.
Another scientist, Grey Walter,
also pursued the concept of
imitating the self-regulating
features of man and animals.
His favorite project was building mechanical 'tortoises' that would, like this live
tortoise, move about freely and have certain attributes of an independent life.
Walter is pictured here with his
wife Vivian, their son Timothy, and
Elsie the tortoise. Elsie has much
in common with Timothy. Just as
Timothy seeks out food, which is
stored in his body in the form of
fat, Elsie seeks out light which she
'feeds' on and transforms into
electrical energy which charges
an accumulator inside her. Then
she's ready for a nap, just like
Timothy after a meal, in an area of
soft light.
Although Elsie's behavior imitates
that of a human, her anatomy is
very different. This is what Elsie
looks like underneath her shell.
She looks a lot more like the inside of a transistor radio than . . .
. . . the inside of a human body.
But as a cybernetician, Walter
was not interested in imitating the
physical form of a human being,
but in simulating a human's
functions.
Cybernetics does not ask . . .
Not as Objects,
. . . but as . . .
Processes
For centuries, people
have designed
machines to help with
human tasks and not
just tasks requiring
muscle power.
Automata, such as the little
moving figures of people or
animals that emerge from cuckoo
clocks and music boxes, were
popular in the 1700's and
machines capable of thinking
were a subject for speculation
long before the electronic
computer was invented.
Macy Foundation Meetings
1946 - 1953
From 1946 to 1953 there was a series of meetings to discuss feedback loops and
circular causality in self-regulating systems.
The mind is, in fact, the meeting place between the brain and an idea, between
the physical and the abstract, between science and philosophy.
Physical Philosophical
Experimental Epistemology
McCulloch founded a new field of study based on this intersection of the
physical and the philosophical. This field of study he called 'experimental
epistemology,' the study of knowledge through neurophysiology. The goal was to
explain how the activity of a nerve network results in what we experience as
feelings and ideas.
Cybernetics = Regulation of Systems
Now that we have touched on some of the key people, their interests, and their
contributions, we shall look at a few additional concepts in cybernetics.
Law of Requisite Variety
One important concept is the law of requisite variety. This law states that as a
system becomes more complex, the controller of that system must also become
more complex, because there are more functions to regulate. In other words, the
more complex the system that is being regulated, the more complex the
regulator of the system must be.
Let's return to our example of a
thermostat.
If a house has only a furnace, the
thermostat can be quite simple
since it controls only the furnace.
However, if the house has both a
furnace and an air conditioner, the
thermostat must be more complex
it will have more switches,
knobs, or buttons since it must
control two processes both
heating and cooling.
The same principle applies to
living organisms. Human beings
have the most complex nervous
system and brain of any of the
animals. This allows them to
engage in many different activities
and to have complex bodies.
In contrast, some animals such as the starfish, . . .
. . . sea cucumber, . . .
. . . and sea anemone have no centralized brain, but only a simple nerve
network, which is all that is required to regulate the simpler bodies and functions
of these sea animals. In summary, the more complex the animal, the more
complex the brain needs to be.
The law of requisite variety not only applies to controlling machines and human
bodies, but to social systems as well. For example, in order to control crime, it is
not necessary or feasible to have one policeman for each citizen, because not
all activities of citizens need regulation . . .
. . . just illegal ones. Therefore, one or two police for every thousand people
generally provides the necessary capability for regulating illegal activities.
In this case a match between the
variety in the regulator and the
variety in the system being
regulated is achieved not by
increasing the complexity of the
regulator, but by reducing the
variety in the system being
regulated. That is, rather than
hiring many policemen, we simply
decide to regulate fewer aspects
of human behavior.
Self Organizing Systems
Narrated By:
Paul Williams
Produced By:
Enrico Bermudez
Paul Williams
Written By:
Catherine Becker
Marcella Slabosky
Stuart Umpleby