---
title: Cybernetics-Wiki
date_created: 2021-01-04
last_updated:
tags: [type/literature/wiki]
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics
---

[Norbert Wiener](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Wiener) defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine".

"Cybernetics is the study of automatic control systems, such as the nervous system and brain and mechanical-electrical communication systems." - [[Singularity vs. Daoist Robots]]

> The word __cybernetics__ comes from [Greek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek) κυβερνητική (__kybernētikḗ__), meaning "governance", i.e., all that are pertinent to κυβερνάω (__kybernáō__), the latter meaning "to steer, navigate or govern", hence κυβέρνησις (__kybérnēsis__), meaning "government", is the government while κυβερνήτης (__kybernḗtēs__) is the governor or "helmsperson" of the "ship".

Interesting that [[Cybernetics]] has the same Greek root as [[Kubernetes]].

Early theories of cybernetics often refer to [[John von Neumann]]'s thought experiments: the [[von Neumann cellular automata]] and the [[von Neumann Universal Constructor]].

Cybernetics is closely related to [[Artifical Intelligence]], though the two split in the late 1960s and cybernetics became more interested in sociology and therapy.

Later, the shift to the "new" cybernetics involved shifting focus from the system "being steered" to the system itself doing the steering. It also considered multiple systems "steering each other."

[[Project Cybersyn]] was a project in Allende's Chile that tried constructing a "decision support system" that could manage the national economy. [Project Cybersyn - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Cybersyn) It's an example of economic cybernetics.

**Filed in**: [[Literature Notes]]

**Related Links**: [[The Computational Turn]]