Norbert Wiener and new trends in cybernetics development (with emphasis on homeostatics)

Abstract

After relatively a short period of neglect, cybernetics has been recognized in the former USSR and attracted a broad range of scientists. A brief review of some cybernetical researches in the former USSR and in modern Russia is presented. On the basis of Arturo Rosenblueth and Norbert Wiener’s concept of homeostasis, a special approach to studying systems of various kinds has been formed in the last ten years. A brief picture of the main features of this approach, called “Homeostatics” and its results during the last five years, is displayed. In the line of Stafford Beer the foremost attention is paid to social systems and organizations, their control and survivability. A few other important cybernetical directions in the Russian science, such as artificial intelligence and informatization, are described.

Homeostatics as the basis for forecasting the global ecological catastrophe

“…The model contains five modules with the contra-directional processes of`o rganisation'' and``disorganisation'' taking place in each of them. These processes are described by integral equations, the time constants in which are considered as variables that depend on a range of operating factors, which reflects either the acceleration or the deceleration of the corresponding processes (Gorsky, 1998;Gorsky et al, 1999).…”

Homeostatics: science of the twenty‐first century

“…In the works of Gorsky (Gorsky 1988(Gorsky , 1990(Gorsky , 1994a(Gorsky , 1994b(Gorsky , 1996a(Gorsky , 1996b(Gorsky , 1998Gorsky and Kulish, 1990;Stepanov, 1996a, 1996b), Astafyev (Astafyev, 1990;Astafyev et al, 1985Astafyev et al, , 1992aAstafyev et al, , 1992bAstafyev et al, , 1999 and others it was already pointed out that homeostatics allows us to reveal the informational mechanisms of development of many breakdowns and catastrophic phenomena. This universality is reflected primarily in the commonness of the organization principles and the means of control of the systems of various natures, in which an important role is allocated to the questions of controlled contradiction.…”