Two Introductions to Cybernetics
Knowledge graph · Foundations
Foundations

Control

The directing of a system's behaviour toward a goal — one of the two subjects cybernetics unifies, achieved through information rather than force.


In John F. Young, Cybernetics (1969)
Ch. 6 · Cybernetics

For Young control is read first in the body's automatic defence mechanisms and reflex arcs, then projected onto machines.

In F. H. George, Cybernetics (1971)
Ch. 1–2 · Basic Ideas / Self-adapting Systems

George stresses that the control signal is independent of the energy it governs (the Watt governor), making it “a form of information control” — the prototype of all cybernetic systems.


Builds on

Cybernetics

Leads to

Nervous system / brainAutomata theory

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