Cybernetics ...
  "the science and art of understanding"... - Humberto Maturana
  "interfaces hard competence with the hard problems of the soft sciences" - Heinz von Foerster
  AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS We stand
  FOUNDATIONS
The Subject of Cybernetics

on the shoulders of giants
ASC HOME   TUTORIALS ON CYBERNETICS


MORE INFO ON CYBERNETICS:
History of
Cybernetics
Defining
Cybernetics
Additional
Resources
Cybernetics'
Lexicon


SOME BACKGROUND


OVERVIEW

Stuart Umpleby
1982, revised 2000

 

There are many definitions of cybernetics and many individuals who have influenced the direction of cybernetics. Cybernetics takes as its domain the design or discovery and application of principles of regulation and communication. Cybernetics treats not things but ways of behaving. It does not ask "what is this thing?" but "what does it do?" and "what can it do?" Because numerous systems in the living, social and technological world may be understood in this way, cybernetics cuts across many traditional disciplinary boundaries. The concepts which cyberneticians develop thus form a metadisciplinary language through which we may better understand and modify our world.
 



ABOUT THESE LINKS   These links lead to Web resources providing introductory materials on the subject of cybernetics and / or closely-related topics.

If you would like to nominate an online tutorial for inclusion in this listing, please contact the ASC Webmaster.
 



LINKS TO CYBERNETICS TUTORIALS


The History and Development of Cybernetics

(George Washington University)
 

  Presented by The George Washington University in cooperation with The American Society for Cybernetics. The main access webpage is at:

http://www.gwu.edu/~asc/slideshow/cybernetics_web/slideshow.html

You have two options for viewing this slide show on the main themes and history of cybernetics...

1. You can play the slideshow (Java-based presentation of a PowerPoint slide set) online

OR...

2. You can download the PowerPoint source file (circa 4.2 Mbytes)
 



Cybernetics Tutorial Presentations

(Stuart Umpleby)
 

  ASC member (and past president) Stuart Umpleby assembled a series of Powerpoint presentations to support tutorial presentations on cybernetics. He's presented these materials as recently as the 2008 ASC Conference. The main access webpage is at:

http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/cybernetics/index.html

The 3 tutorial sessions Stuart conducted at the 2008 Urbana conference (and direct links to associated Powerpoint files) are as follows:



Cybernetics and Second-Order Cybernetics

(Francis Heylighen
and
Cliff Joslyn)

 

  This is the overview article on cybernetics from the Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology (3rd ed.) (Academic Press, 2001).

The main access webpage is at:

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Cybernetics-EPST.pdf
 



A Curriculum for Cybernetics and Systems Theory

(Alan B. Scrivener)
 

  "This is a list, with reviews, of suggested books, periodicals, television shows and computer programs for a classroom curriculum or individual study in cybernetics and systems theory. ..."

The main access webpage is at:

http://www.well.com/user/abs/curriculum.html
 



MORE INFO ON CYBERNETICS:
History of
Cybernetics
Defining
Cybernetics
Additional
Resources
Cybernetics'
Lexicon


  For feedback, suggestions or contributions, please email the ASC Webmaster.
 
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  AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS We stand
  FOUNDATIONS
The Subject of Cybernetics

on the shoulders of giants