Two Introductions to Cybernetics
Knowledge graph · Biological substrate
Biological substrate

Intelligence

The capacity for adaptive, foresightful behaviour — defined by Young as a capacity for inhibition, and by George as synthesisable adaptation.


In John F. Young, Cybernetics (1969)
Ch. 15 · The Designer's Dilemma

Young's signature thesis: intelligence might usefully be defined as “a capacity for inhibition,” since intelligent action characteristically postpones an immediate instinctive response.

In F. H. George, Cybernetics (1971)
Ch. 12 · The Future of Cybernetics

George views the human as a rational information processor and holds out the prospect of copying — and eventually improving on — the whole of human rational ability.


Builds on

Inhibition

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