A Dictionary of Cybernetics
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Warren Mcculloch and the British Cyberneticians
Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians Article (Accepted Version) Husbands, Phil and Holland, Owen (2012) Warren McCulloch and the British cyberneticians. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 37 (3). pp. 237-253. ISSN 0308-0188 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/43089/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher’s version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse: Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University. Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available. Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Warren McCulloch and the British Cyberneticians1 Phil Husbands and Owen Holland Dept. Informatics, University of Sussex Abstract Warren McCulloch was a significant influence on a number of British cyberneticians, as some British pioneers in this area were on him. -
Second-Order Economics As an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 18, nos. 3-4, pp. xx-xx Second-Order Economics as an Example of Second-Order Cybernetics Stuart A. Umpleby1 Heinz von Foerster proposed that the observer should be included in the domain of observation. He suggested that this approach to cybernetics be called second-order cybernetics. Heinz was primarily interested in understanding cognition, based on neurophysiology and mathematics. But there has also been strong interest in cybernetics as a theory of social systems. Using the “second order” idea for existing social science fields would focus attention on the role of the observer and on reflexive phenomena such as the effect of theories on what is being studied. This article considers how the field of economics might adopt the second order idea. A Current Task for Cybernetics In emphasizing the role of the observer and creating the term second-order cybernetics Von Foerster was ahead of his time. One example is the fact that the field of economics may be on the verge of beginning research on second-order economics. But before explaining why that is happening, some background is necessary. Von Foerster was persuaded that the observer needed to be studied as well as the observed. The traditional philosophy of science maintained that scientific observations should be independent of the characteristics of the observer. However, as Humberto Maturana noted, “Anything said is said by an observer” (Maturana, 1970, p. 4). Hence, excluding the observer from consideration is a kind of denial. Von Foerster sustained and advanced the field of cybernetics when many others had returned to their home disciplines. -
Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic
Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History Spring 5-7-2011 Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic Kevin T. Baker Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Baker, Kevin T., "Red Helmsman: Cybernetics, Economics, and Philosophy in the German Democratic Republic." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/47 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RED HELMSMAN: CYBERNETICS, ECONOMICS, AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC by KEVIN T. BAKER Under the Direction of Jared Poley ABSTRACT Cybernetics, despite being initially rejected in the Eastern Bloc throughout the 1950s for ideological reasons, rose to a high level of institutional prominence in the 1960s, profoundly influencing state philosophy and economic planning. This thesis is an examination of this transition, charting the development of cybernetics from the object of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands’s (SED) opprobrium to one of the major philosophical currents within the party intelligentsia. INDEX WORDS: East Germany, Marxism, History of science, Economics, Cybernetics, Philosophy, Cold War, Information theory, Georg Klaus, Walter Ulbricht RED HELMSMAN: CYBERNETICS, ECONOMICS, AND PHILOSOPHY IN THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC by KEVIN T. BAKER A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of the Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2011 Copyright by Kevin T. -
Adventures Beyond Reductionism. the Remarkable Unfolding of Complex Holism: Sustainability Science
Adventures Beyond Reductionism. The Remarkable Unfolding of Complex Holism: Sustainability Science A. Sengupta Institute for Complex Holism, Kolkata, INDIA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down”. Can Darwinian random mutations and selection generate biological complexity and holism? In this paper we argue that the “wonderful but not enough” tools of linear reductionism cannot lead to chaos and hence to complexity and holism, but with ChaNoXity this seems indeed plausible, even likely. Based on the Pump-Engine realism of mutually interacting supply and demand — demand institutes supply that fuels demand — we demonstrate that the “supply” of symmetry breaking Darwinian genetic variation, in direct conflict with the symmetry inducing “demand” of natural selection, defines the antagonistic arrows of the real and negative worlds. Working in this competitively collaborating nonlinear mode, these opposites generate the homeostasy of holistic life. Protein folding, mitosis, meiosis, hydrophobicity and other ingredients have their respective expressions in this paradigm; nucleotide substitution, gene duplication-divergence, HGT, stress-induced mutations, antibiotic resistance, Lamarckism would appear to fit in naturally in this complexity paradigm defined through emergence of novelty and self-organization. With obvious departures from mainstream reductionism, this can have far reaching implications in the Darwinian and nano medicine of genetic diseases and disorders. Our goal is to chart a roadmap of adventure beyond (neo)-Darwinian reductionism. Keywords: Chanoxity; Reductionism; Darwinian Holism; Self-organization and Emergence; Demand, Sup- ply, Logistic. 1 Introduction: Beyond Reductionism Biological systems are complex holistic systems: thermodynamically open and far-from-equilibrium, self organizing, emergent. -
Towards a Cybernetic Foundation for Natural Resource Governance
Towards a Cybernetic Foundation for Natural Resource Governance A Thesis Presented to the Academic Faculty by Talha Manzoor In Partial Fullfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering Supervisor: Abubakr Muhammad (LUMS) Co-supervisor: Elena Rovenskaya (IIASA) arXiv:1803.09369v1 [cs.SY] 20 Mar 2018 Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering Lahore University of Management Sciences December 2017 © 2017 by Talha Manzoor To Marwa and her never-ending quest for adventure. Abstract This study explores the potential of the cybernetic method of inquiry for the problem of natural resource governance. The systems way of thinking has already enabled scientists to gain considerable headway in framing global environmental challenges. On the other hand, technical solutions to environmental problems have begun to show significant promise, driven by the advent of technology and its increased proliferation in coupled human and natural systems. Such settings lie on the interface of engineering, social and environmental sciences, and as such, require a common language in order for natural resources to be studied, managed and ultimately sustained. In this dissertation, we argue that the systems theoretic tradition of cybernetics may provide the necessary common ground for examining such systems. After discussing the relevance of the cybernetic approach to natural resource governance, we present a mathematical model of resource consumption, grounded in social psychological research on consumer behavior. We also provide interpretations of the model at various levels of abstraction in the social network of the consuming population. We demonstrate the potential of the model by examining it in various theoretic frameworks which include dynamical systems, optimal control theory, game theory and the theory of learning in games. -
The Cybernetic Brain
THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN SKETCHES OF ANOTHER FUTURE Andrew Pickering THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON ANDREW PICKERING IS PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE CONSTRUCTING QUARKS: A SO- CIOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PARTICLE PHYSICS, THE MANGLE OF PRACTICE: TIME, AGENCY, AND SCIENCE, AND SCIENCE AS PRACTICE AND CULTURE, A L L PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, AND THE MANGLE IN PRAC- TICE: SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND BECOMING (COEDITED WITH KEITH GUZIK). THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON © 2010 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED 2010 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH) ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pickering, Andrew. The cybernetic brain : sketches of another future / Andrew Pickering. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cybernetics. 2. Cybernetics—History. 3. Brain. 4. Self-organizing systems. I. Title. Q310.P53 2010 003’.5—dc22 2009023367 a THE PAPER USED IN THIS PUBLICATION MEETS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD FOR INFORMATION SCIENCES—PERMA- NENCE OF PAPER FOR PRINTED LIBRARY MATERIALS, ANSI Z39.48-1992. DEDICATION For Jane F. CONTENTS Acknowledgments / ix 1. The Adaptive Brain / 1 2. Ontological Theater / 17 PART 1: PSYCHIATRY TO CYBERNETICS 3. -
Fruits of Gregory Bateson's Epistemological Crisis
Fruits of Gregory Bateson’s Epistemological Crisis: Embodied Mind-Making and Interactive Experience in Research and Professional Praxis David Russell Sydney and Blackheath, Australia Ray Ison The Open University, UK ABSTRACT Background: The espoused rationale for this special issue, situated “at the margins of cy - bernetics,” was to revisit and extend the common genealogy of cybernetics and communica - tion studies. Two possible topics garnered our attention: 1) the history of intellectual adventurers whose work has appropriated cybernetic concepts; and 2) the remediation of cy - bernetic metaphors. Analysis: A heuristic for engaging in first- and second-order R&D praxis, the design of which was informed by co-research with pastoralists (1989–1993) and the authors’ engagements with the scholarship of Bateson and Maturana, was employed and adapted as a reflexive in - quiry framework. Conclusion and implications: This inquiry challenges the mainstream desire for change and the belief in getting the communication right in order to achieve change. The authors argue this view is based on an epistemological error that continues to produce the very prob - lems it intends to diminish, and thus we live a fundamental error in epistemology, false on - tology, and misplaced practice. The authors offer instead conceptual and praxis possibilities for triggering new co-evolutionary trajectories. Keywords: Reflexive praxis; Experience; Distinctions; Critical incidents; Maturana RÉSUMÉ Contexte La raison d’être de ce numéro spécial « aux marges de la cybernétique » était de revisiter et d’étoffer la généalogie partagée de la cybernétique et des études en communication. Deux sujets possibles ont retenu notre attention : 1) l’histoire d’explorateurs intellectuels qui ont emprunté certains concepts à la cybernétique; et 2) la rectification de métaphores cybernétiques. -
Second Order Cybernetics 31/08/2008 10:08
SECOND ORDER CYBERNETICS 31/08/2008 10:08 Search Print this chapter Cite this chapter SECOND ORDER CYBERNETICS Ranulph Glanville, CybernEthics Research, UK and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia Keywords: actor, analogy, argument, automata, autopoiesis, behavior, biology, Black_Box, causality, circularity, coding, cognition, communication, computation, concept, consciousness, control, conversation, cybernetics, description, design, distinction, ecology, education, environment, epistemology, error, ethics, feedback, form, function, generosity, goal, homeostasis, idea, identity, individual, information, interaction, internet, knowing, language, learning, logic, management, mathematics, meaning, mechanism, memory, meta-, metaphor, moment, mutualism, network, object, observe, organizational_closure, oscillation, person, phenomenon, philosophical, physics, positivist, (post-)_modernism, praxis, process, program, psychology, purpose, quality, reality, reason, recursion, relative, responsibility, science, second_order_cybernetics, (self-)_reference, semiotics, social, structure, subject, support, system, theory, thinking, time, truth, understanding, variety, whole_(and_part) Contents 1. Introduction: What Second Order Cybernetics is, and What it Offers 2. Background—the Logical Basis for Second Order Cybernetics 3. Second Order Cybernetics—Historical Overview 4. Theory of Second Order Cybernetics 5. Praxis of Second Order Cybernetics 6. A Note on Second Order Cybernetics and Constructivism 7. Cybernetics, Second Order -
Feedback Systems: an Introduction for Scientists and Engineers
Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers Karl Johan Astrĺ om Department of Automatic Control Lund Institute of Technology Richard M. Murray Control and Dynamical Systems California Institute of Technology DRAFT v0.915, 26 September 2004 c 2004 Karl Johan Astrĺ om and Richard Murray All rights reserved. This manuscript is for review purposes only and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written consent from the authors. ii Preface This book provides an introduction to the basic principles and tools for design and analysis of feedback systems. It is intended to serve a diverse audience of scientists and engineers who are interested in understanding and utilizing feedback in physical, biological, information, and economic systems. To this end, we have chosen to keep the mathematical pre-requisites to a minimum while being careful not to sacri¯ce rigor in the process. Advanced sections, marked by the \dangerous bend" symbol shown to the right indi- cate material that is of a more advanced nature and can be skipped on ¯rst Ä reading. This book was originally developed for use in an experimental course at Caltech involving undergraduates and graduate students from a wide variety of disciplines. The course included undergraduates at the junior and senior level in traditional engineering disciplines, as well as ¯rst and second year graduate students in engineering and science. This included graduate students in biology, computer science, and economics, requiring a broad approach that emphasized basic principles and did not focus on applications in a given area. A detailed web site has been prepared as a companion to this text: http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~murray/books/am04 The web site contains the MATLAB and other source code for every example in the book, as well as MATLAB libraries to implement the techniques described in the text. -
The Road to Servomechanisms: the Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek From
The Road to Servomechanisms: The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek from The Sensory Order to the Social Order by Gabriel Oliva CHOPE Working Paper No. 2015-11 October 2015 The Road to Servomechanisms: The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek from The Sensory Order to the Social Order Gabriel Oliva University of São Paulo [email protected] October 2015 Abstract: This paper explores the ways in which cybernetics influenced the works of F. A. Hayek from the late 1940s onward. It shows that the concept of negative feedback, borrowed from cybernetics, was central to Hayek’s attempt of giving an explanation of the principle to the emergence of human purposive behavior. Next, the paper discusses Hayek’s later uses of cybernetic ideas in his works on the spontaneous formation of social orders. Finally, Hayek’s view on the appropriate scope of the use of cybernetics is considered. Keywords: Cybernetics, F. A. Hayek, Norbert Wiener, Garrett Hardin, Ludwig von Bertalanffy. JEL Codes: B25, B31, C60 2 The Road to Servomechanisms: The Influence of Cybernetics on Hayek from The Sensory Order to the Social Order1 Gabriel Oliva When I began my work I felt that I was nearly alone in working on the evolutionary formation of such highly complex self-maintaining orders. Meanwhile, researches on this kind of problem – under various names, such as autopoiesis, cybernetics, homeostasis, spontaneous order, self-organisation, synergetics, systems theory, and so on – have become so numerous that I have been able to study closely no more than a few of them. (Hayek, 1988, p. 9) 1. Introduction It is widely recognized in the literature2 that the Austrian economist F. -
Jens Glad Balchen: a Norwegian Pioneer in Engineering Cybernetics
Modeling, Identification and Control, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2009, pp. 101{125, ISSN 1890{1328 Jens Glad Balchen: A Norwegian Pioneer in Engineering Cybernetics Morten Breivik 1 Gunnar Sand 2 1Centre for Ships and Ocean Structures, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway. E-mail: [email protected] 2The University Centre in Svalbard, NO-9171 Longyearbyen, Norway. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This paper tells the story of Jens Glad Balchen (1926-2009), a Norwegian research scientist and engineer who is widely regarded as the father of Engineering Cybernetics in Norway. In 1954, he founded what would later become the Department of Automatic Control at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim. This name was changed to the Department of Engineering Cybernetics in 1972 to reflect the broader efforts being made, not only within the purely technical disciplines, but also within biology, oceanography and medicine. Balchen established an advanced research community in cybernetics in post- war Norway, whose applications span everything from the process industry and positioning of ships to control of fish and lobster farming. He was a chief among the tribe of Norwegian cybernetics engineers and made a strong impact on his colleagues worldwide. He planted the seeds of a whole generation of Nor- wegian industrial companies through his efforts of seeking applications for every scientific breakthrough. His strength and his wisdom in combination with his remarkable stubbornness gave extraordinary results. Keywords: Jens Glad Balchen, Servo Engineering, Automatic Control, Engineering Cybernetics, IFAC, NFA, DIANA, Ship Automation, DP, Cyberfish, Lobster Farming, Golden Feedback Loop 1 Introduction story can contribute to spreading the word about Jens' adventures and give inspiration to new generations of The son of an electrical engineer, Jens Glad Balchen control engineers around the world. -
Economic Cybernetics
~26 ~ ВІСНИК Київського національного університету імені Тараса Шевченка ISSN1728-3817 Bulletin of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Economics, 2020; 1(208): 26-32 УДК 336.7 JEL classification: G2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2667.2020/208-1/3 K. Lawler, Professor ORCID iD 0000-002-3409-6755 University of Kuwait, Kuwait, A. O. Moscardini, Visiting Professor Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK, ORCID ID 0000-0003-4951-0848, T. Vlasova, Visiting Research Fellow ORCID iD 0000-0002-5000-6756 Northumbria University, UK, D. Mubarak, Teaching Assistant ORCID iD 0000-0003-3734-1856 University of Kuwait, Kuwait ECONOMIC CYBERNETICS This paper begins with a consideration of the work of Leijonhufvud, who, in the 1960's, introduced what he termed "cybernetics" to correct many of the perceived weaknesses in macroeconomic theory. The authors use current advances in systems thinking to develop their own definition of Cybernetics and provide an example to illustrate how this definition of cybernetics can produce meaningful economic questions. The paper concludes with a synthesis of economic and cybernetic ideas which is termed "Economic Cybernetics". This term is common in the former Soviet countries but is unfamiliar to western audiences. Keywords: Economics, Cybernetics, Mathematics. 1. Introduction sub discipline area are besmirched. A negative feedback The following quote is taken by from a recent paper by loop develops where the reputation of Economics declines the 2018 Nobel prize winner, Paul Romer. and, if not corrected, result in its death [22]. For more than three decades, macroeconomics has The main research agenda for Leijonhufvud [15] was gone backwards. The treatment of identification now is no to completely debunk the Hicks-Hansen interpretation of more credible than in the early 1970's but escapes challenge the General Theory that focused on the aggregative because it is so much more opaque.