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Cybernetics has been defined in a variety of ways, by a variety of people, from a variety of disciplines. Cybernetician Stuart Umpleby reports some notable definitions:
"Science concerned with the study of systems of any nature which are capable of receiving, storing and processing information so as to use it for control."—A. N. Kolmogorov
"'The art of steersmanship': deals with all forms of behavior in so far as they are regular, or determinate, or reproducible: stands to the real machine -- electronic, mechanical, neural, or economic -- much as geometry stands to real object in our terrestrial space; offers a method for the scientific treatment of the system in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be ignored."—W. Ross Ashby
"A branch of mathematics dealing with problems of control, recursiveness, and information, focuses on forms and the patterns that connect."—Gregory Bateson
"The art of securing efficient operation [lit.: the art of effective action]."—Louis Couffignal
"The art of effective organization."—Stafford Beer
"The art and science of manipulating defensible metaphors" (with relevance to constructivist epistemology. The author later extended the definition to include information flows "in all media", from stars to brains.)—Gordon Pask
"The art of creating equilibrium in a world of constraints and possibilities."—Ernst von Glasersfeld
"The science and art of understanding." – Humberto Maturana
"The ability to cure all temporary truth of eternal triteness."—Herbert Brun
Other notable definitions include:
"The science and art of the understanding of understanding."—Rodney E. Donaldson, the first president of the American Society for Cybernetics
"A way of thinking about ways of thinking of which it is one."—Larry Richards
"The art of interaction in dynamic networks."—Roy Ascott
"The study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves."—Louis Kauffman, President of the American Society for Cybernetics
"Science concerned with the study of systems of any nature which are capable of receiving, storing and processing information so as to use it for control."—A. N. Kolmogorov
"'The art of steersmanship': deals with all forms of behavior in so far as they are regular, or determinate, or reproducible: stands to the real machine -- electronic, mechanical, neural, or economic -- much as geometry stands to real object in our terrestrial space; offers a method for the scientific treatment of the system in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be ignored."—W. Ross Ashby
"A branch of mathematics dealing with problems of control, recursiveness, and information, focuses on forms and the patterns that connect."—Gregory Bateson
"The art of securing efficient operation [lit.: the art of effective action]."—Louis Couffignal
"The art of effective organization."—Stafford Beer
"The art and science of manipulating defensible metaphors" (with relevance to constructivist epistemology. The author later extended the definition to include information flows "in all media", from stars to brains.)—Gordon Pask
"The art of creating equilibrium in a world of constraints and possibilities."—Ernst von Glasersfeld
"The science and art of understanding." – Humberto Maturana
"The ability to cure all temporary truth of eternal triteness."—Herbert Brun
Other notable definitions include:
"The science and art of the understanding of understanding."—Rodney E. Donaldson, the first president of the American Society for Cybernetics
"A way of thinking about ways of thinking of which it is one."—Larry Richards
"The art of interaction in dynamic networks."—Roy Ascott
"The study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves."—Louis Kauffman, President of the American Society for Cybernetics
22-25, F
