cybernetics

Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary field that studies regulatory and communication processes in living beings, machines, and organizations. Originating in the mid-20th century, it asks how systems control their states, adapt to changing environments, and coordinate actions through information flows. The term was popularized by Norbert Wiener, who helped connect ideas from engineering, biology, and information theory into a unifying framework.

At its core, cybernetics treats systems as networks of components linked by feedback loops. Key concepts include control, regulation, and communication, as well as information processing. Negative feedback stabilizes systems, while positive feedback can drive change. Circular causality emphasizes that the outputs of a system can influence its inputs, creating self-regulating behavior and, in some cases, homeostasis.

Historically, cybernetics developed through the Macy Conferences and contributions by researchers such as Wiener, Ross Ashby, and Heinz von Foerster. Ashby’s law of requisite variety posits that a system must possess sufficient complexity to cope with its environment. Second-order cybernetics later considered the observer as part of the system, highlighting reflexivity in modeling.

The field spans engineering, biology, computer science, cognitive science, and organizational theory. It influenced control theory, systems theory, robotics, AI, and the study of social systems. While information theory focuses on signal transmission, cybernetics emphasizes regulation, adaptation, and the behavior of complex networks of interacting elements.

Today cybernetics informs the design of adaptive and autonomous systems, cyber-physical systems, and models of complex adaptive systems in natural and social domains. Its legacy endures in approaches that analyze how structure, function, and information feedback enable coordination and resilience in diverse settings.