#3.0 Cyberwhatnow?

Being told to write a post this week on cybernetics is something that even after re-watching the lecture and spending more hours than I'd care to admit frantically googling what it's about, still feels like a concept thats scientific and abstract nature will continue to fly straight over my head. But I digress. The dictionary defines cybernetics as, "the study of human control functions and of mechanical and electronic systems designed to replace them, involving the application of statistical mechanics to communication engineering" (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2017). Finding this definition unpalatable at best I continued to delve deeper into what cybernetics at its core is all about. In his 1948 aptly named book Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine Norbert Wiener, a mathematician, engineer and social philosopher established the term from the Greek word meaning "steersman" (American Society for Cybernetics, n.d.).

Through the research I conducted in a frenzied attempt at comprehension I found this video that provided me with a clear, succinct and easy to follow narrative on the complexity of cybernetics. At it's core cybernetics (in relation to technologically mediated communication) refers to the ability of a machine or individual to process information and sensory triggers that allow it/them to respond in a manner that ensures it is guided appropriately towards an end goal. This capacity to process feedback in order to alter behaviours or actions is said by Dr Paul Pangaro to be a crucial element of cybernetics that is pivotal to the successful functioning of technological, biological and social interactions.

REFERENCES:

American Society for Cybernetics (n.d.). Defining 'Cybernetics'. [online] American Society for Cybernetics. Available at: http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/definitions.htm [Accessed 22 Jul. 2017].

Merriam Webster Dictionary (2017). Cybernetics. [online] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cybernetics. Available at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cybernetics [Accessed 22 Jul. 2017].

Pangaro, P. (2013). Cybernetics — A Definition. [online] Pangaro.com. Available at: http://www.pangaro.com/definition-cybernetics.html [Accessed 21 Jul. 2017].

Wiener, N. (1948). Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press.

What is cybernetics?. (2012). [video] Directed by P. Pangaro. Vimeo.