cybernetics

  • science of systems
  • goal-oriented
  • feedback, influence, control
  • assuming no objective truth
  • applied epistemology

ai-versus-cybernetics.jpg (image from https://www.pangaro.com/definition-cybernetics.html)


  • a field developed for war, again (tech for war)
  • term coined by mathematician Norbert Weiner in WW1
  • ‘predictor device’ to increase aiming accuracy of anti-aircraft guns
  • early principles of ‘control’ and ‘communication’
  • early focus on self-regulating systems, adaptation in response to environment
  • 60s second gen linked in ecological and philosophical contexts
  • later principles of ‘observation’ and ‘influence’
  • ‘creative acts with minimal human intervention’ - computers with agency