Cybernetics is part of the
system of Optimization, a field of applied mathematics,
consisting of a collection of principles and methods, designed
to produce a quantitative result for a number of disciplines
including engineering, physics, biology and business. The
idea (theory) is that you can use identical methods to obtain
solutions for widely varying problems. This
doesn't mean it's the only solution, of course. Besides
cybernetics, optimization also includes linear and non-linear
programming, control theory and game theory.
Cybernetic roots Cybernetics
itself is thus not an exact
science. It is often used to define automatic control systems of a high complexity,
such as our own nervous system or a system of government as was
initially suggested by the French Physicist André-Marie Ampère
in the 19th century. In his classification of sciences he
called the nonexistent science of the control of governments
cybernetics. (See below for the definition of cybernetics.)
After World War 2, in 1948, did an American mathematician,
Norbert Wiener, define cybernetics as "the science of control
and communications in the animal and the machine". |
Cybernetics and computers The development of
the computer, and its intrinsic discipline of mathematical logic
has greatly increased the use of cybernetics during the past fifty
years because it was now possible to process large amounts of data, better known as information processing.
Western and Eastern scientists defined different definitions for
cybernetics. The Western, and more limited, definition described
cybernetics as the science of control of complex systems of
various types, with
emphasis on control systems in technology and living organisms
such as the nervous system.
In the Soviet sphere of influence cybernetics was considered to
encompass not only the control systems as mentioned above but all
information processing of which the computer sciences are only a
part.
Personal cybernetics
The application of cybernetics is not limited to the outer world
but can, perhaps should, be applied to ourselves as well.
It's called personal development. Self-teaching is a key
discipline of self-development and of cybernetics. (See also
Personal Development.)
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Like
nanotechnology,
neural networking and
robotics, cybernetics, defined "..as the science of control and
communication in the animal and the machine" is in the forefront of
high tech development.
You can built your robot, define its learning by
neural pathways, but to define a control mechanism by which it
functions requires the use of one type of cybernetic system or
another.
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Other, more straightforward applications can be
found in industrial robotics, analysis and decision software and in
learning projects. |
