An introduction to cybernetics

Abstract

Many workers in the biological sciences-physiologists, psychologists, sociologists-are interested in cybernetics and would like to apply its methods and techniques to their own speciality. Many have, however, been prevented from taking up the subject by an impression that its use must be preceded by a long study of electronics and advanced pure mathematics; for they have formed the impression that cybernetics and these subjects are inseparable. The author is convinced, however, that this impression is false. The basic ideas of cybernetics can be treated without reference to electronics, and they are fundamentally simple; so although advanced techniques may be necessary for advanced applications, a great deal can be done, especially in the biological sciences, by the use of quite simple techniques, provided they are used with a clear and deep understanding of the principles involved. It is the author's belief that if the subject is founded in the commonplace and well understood, and is then built up carefully, step by step, there is no reason why the worker with only elementary mathematical knowledge should not achieve a complete understanding of its basic principles. With such an understanding he will then be able to see exactly what further techniques he will have to learn if he is to proceed further; and, what is particularly useful, he will be able to see what techniques he can safely ignore as being irrelevant to his purpose. The book is intended to provide such an introduction. It starts from commonplace and well-understood concepts, and proceeds, step by step, to show how these concepts can be made exact, and how they can be developed until they lead into such subjects as feedback, stability, regulation, ultrastability, information, coding, noise, and other cybernetic topics. Throughout the book no knowledge of mathematics is required beyond elementary algebra; in particular, the arguments nowhere depend on the calculus (the few references to it can be ignored without harm, for they are intended only to show how the calculus joins on to the subjects discussed, if it should be used). The illustrations and examples are mostly taken from the biological, rather than the physical, sciences. Its overlap with Design for a Brain is small, so that the two books are almost independent. They are, however, intimately related, and are best treated as complementary; each will help to illuminate the other. vi

Development of Social Systems in the Context of Prognosis

“…We believe that ability to coin novelties is a primary sign of a system's diversity -as was formulated by William Ashby in An Introduction to Cybernetics [27]: "In order to create the system capable of solving a diverse task, we need to make the system's diversity wider than that of the task -or to ensure that the system has the potential to generate it." In case of social system that implies that under the influence of multiple external factors a system is able to succeed in the adaption process only providing the expansion of control modifiers.…”

Improving cycle time performance: the role of market turbulence and cultural competitiveness

“…Consequently, supply chains possibly realize that there is a positive impact of MT on KD-cycle time performance providing forceful nature of KD behaviors. In fact, by applying the idea of essential diversity, Ashby (1956) proposes that as the rate of environmental change increases, the KD also increases. Essential diversity means that organizational bodies, i.e.…”

Atomic–Antarctic terminal zone

“…43 45 As such, as the earthly analogue for journeys into outer space, the mirror image of the destination-the moon-that the rocketry programme wants to attain, the Antarctic's 'resident narratives', 46 to be retrieved by gyro-mechanisms, refer to dual records, the congealed vestiges of by 'Shackleton, Amundsen, Scott and Byrd', 47 and to unearth soil and rock samples in the pre-Cambrian strata. The excavation occurs at hand of a 'remarkable drill' 48 devised by a member of staff at the University's engineering department, a mechanism combining 'the ordinary artesian drill principle with the principle of the small circular rock drill', 49 whose head of steel thrusts into space.…”

“…The continent's diffusive whiteness prevents revelation of core knowledge; the starting point to enter its repositories of information should be, as W. Ross Ashby advocates, to 'make no assumptions at all about the nature of the box and its contents, which might be something … that has just fallen from a Flying Saucer'. 55 Explorers comply-Antarctic treks resemble drifts through interstellar space-but nonetheless attempt to force under/other-worlds of data into jars, the tidy spaces of shacks that, as time goes on, disintegrate into asteroid belts of dirt, of half-eaten frozen food. 56 The practical applications of Byrd The machines of which we are now speaking are not the dream of the sensationalist, nor the hope of some future time.…”