CONCEPT OF TECHNOLOGY :

CYBERNETICS

Dr. Nanang Suryana, ST, MT

1
Telkom University
 Definition of Cybernetics ...(1)
 "The only branch of science and math concerned with the 'Limitations' of
Evolution"—Taylor Kirkland
 "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 securing efficient operation."—L. Couffignal
 "'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
2 Source :Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Definition of Cybernetics ...(2)
 "The art of effective organization."—Stafford Beer
 "The art of creating equilibrium in a world of constraints and
possibilities."—Ernst von Glasersfeld
 "The science and art of understanding."—Humberto Maturana
 "The science and art of the understanding of understanding."—Rodney
E. Donaldson
 "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 science of communications and automatic control systems in both
machines and living things.
 Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (BBI) : Sibernetika adalah ilmu
pengetahuan tentang komunikasi dan pengawasan yang khususnya
berkenaan dengan studi banding atas sistem pengawasan otomatis
3 Source :Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Development of Cybernetics
 The word cybernetics was first used in the context of "the study of
self-governance" by Plato in The Alcibiades to signify the
governance of people
 The first artificial automatic regulatory system, a water clock, was
invented by the mechanician Ktesibios. In his water clocks, water
flowed from a source such as a holding tank into a reservoir, then
from the reservoir to the mechanisms of the clock
 In 1868 James Clerk Maxwell published a theoretical article on
governors, one of the first to discuss and refine the principles of
self-regulating devices

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 Development of Cybernetics
 Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting
the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mechanical
engineering, logic modeling, evolutionary biology and neuroscience in
the 1940s
 Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of
control and communication in the animal and the machine.
 System dynamics, a related field, originated with applications of
electrical engineering control theory to other kinds of simulation models
(especially business systems) by Jay Forrester at MIT in the 1950s.
 In the 1970s, new cyberneticians emerged in multiple fields, but
especially in biology. The ideas of Maturana,Varela and Atlan, according
to Dupuy (1986) "realized that the cybernetic metaphors of the program
upon which molecular biology had been based rendered a conception of
the autonomy of the living being impossible

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 Development of Cybernetics
 The design of self-regulating control systems for a real-time planned
economy was explored by Viktor Glushkov in the former Soviet Union
during the 1960s. By the time information technology was developed
enough to enable feasible economic planning based on computers
 One characteristic of the emerging new cybernetics considered in that
time by Felix Geyer and Hans van der Zouwen, according to Bailey
(1994),[17] was "that it views information as constructed and
reconstructed by an individual interacting with the environment
 Another characteristic noted was the "transition from classical
cybernetics to the new cybernetics [that] involves a transition from
classical problems to new problems. These shifts in thinking involve,
 a change from emphasis on the system being steered to the system doing the
steering, and the factor which guides the steering decisions.;
 new emphasis on communication between several systems which are trying
to steer each other

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 Development of Cybernetics

Period Concepts
First order cybernetics: • Homeostasis
1940’s-60’s • control of the observed mechanism,
• self-steering
• information vs. noise
Second order cybernetics: • stability (vs. homeostasis)
late 60’s-80’s • interaction with (vs. control of)
mechanism
• observer’s implication in the system

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 Cybernetics founders:

Norbert Wiener John von Neumann

Develops mathematical models for feedback; Develops mathematical model for top-down
particularly analog systems architecture of digital computer

Collaborate with labor unions to prevent Pushes for more nuclear weapons development,
displacement of workers from automation; claims radiation not that bad. Pushes for first strike
announces he will cease collaboration with military. against USSR. Develops Cellular Automata in
FBI opens file on him as suspected communist. context of machines that survive nuclear strike.
Concept of Cybernetics : Theory of System
 Cybernetics is the study of feedback & control.
 For a system to work properly, it must have control mechanisms.

 Control mechanisms
 Accept information about system outputs
 Evaluate information using goal related criteria
 Use the feedback as additional inputs

 Implications

 Examining the feedback and control mechanisms of a system will allow you
to see causes of system failure
 Concept of Cybernetics
 Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary[1] approach for exploring
regulatory systems, their structures, constraints, and possibilities
 Cybernetics is relevant to the study of systems, such as mechanical,
physical, biological, cognitive, and social systems.
 Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analyzed is involved
in a closed signaling loop; that is, where action by the system
generates some change in its environment and that change is
reflected in that system in some manner (feedback) that triggers a
system change, originally referred to as a "circular causal"
relationship

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 Concept of Cybernetics
 Concepts studied by cyberneticists (or, as some prefer,
cyberneticians) include, but are not limited to: learning, cognition,
adaptation, social control, emergence, communication, efficiency,
efficacy, and connectivity. These concepts are studied by other
subjects such as engineering and biology, but in cybernetics these
are abstracted from the context of the individual organism or
device

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 Concept of Cybernetics
 Cybernetics began as the science of communication and control in
the animal, machine, and society; i.e. special types of systems.
 It operates on two levels: study of an observed system & study of
the people studying a system. Originated from R & D process in
the development of the atomic bomb- applied scientific theory &
principles in real-world setting.
 The fundamental concepts of cybernetics have proven to be enormously
powerful in a variety of disciplines: computer science, management,
biology, sociology, thermodynamics, etc.
 Cybernetics and Systems Science combine the abstraction of philosophy
and mathematics with the concreteness of dealing with the theory and
modeling of "real world" evolving systems.

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 Concept of Cybernetics
 Theoretical-sciences of complexity--including Artificial
intelligence (AI) , neural networks, dynamical systems, chaos,
and complex adaptive systems.
 Practical-Many of the concepts used by system scientists
come from the closely related approach of cybernetics:
information, control, feedback, communication.

• Sibernetika adalah suatu sains tentang komunikasi dan kontrol dalam

suatu sistem untuk melakukan penggorganisasian yang efektif
• Konsep sibernetika yang semula diterapkan pada sistem fisik, juga relevan
untuk memahami suatu kelompok sosial atau bahkan tingkah laku
individu sekalipun, tentunya dengan beberapa penyesuaian terhadap
konsep/teori yang berlaku pada tiap-tiap sistem nyatanya

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Concept of Cybernetics

Talcott Parsons: The Social System

Sibernetika Talcott Parson (Talcott Parson’s Cybernetics) menyebutkan

ada empat subsistem: budaya, sosial, politik, dan ekonomi yang senantiasa
melingkari kehidupan kemasyarakatan

THE PROCESS OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION

Talcott Parsons: The Social System

CYBERNETIC HIERARCHY OF CONTROL

Talcott Parsons: The Social System

VALUE SYSTEMS

COGNITIVE APPRECIATIVE MORAL

Empirical Aesthetic Ultimate
Factual Emotional Right/Wrong
Strategic Cathectic Evaluative
Beliefs Expressive Values
“What Is” Feelings “What Ought”
(meaning) (membership) (order)

Orientation Types Types

Needs
Toward Of Of
And
Social Cultural Social
Values
Situation Patterns Action
Talcott Parsons: The Social System

TYPES OF ACTION
 Talcott Parsons: The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives
 Adaptation
 Securing sufficient resources from the physical and social environment
and then distributing these throughout the system.
 Goal Attainment
 Establishing priorities among system goals and mobilizing system
resources for their attainment.
 Integration
 Coordinating and maintaining viable interrelationships among system
units thru
communication and common value systems.

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 Talcott Parsons: The Social System
The Four Functional Imperatives

 Latency (Two related problems):

 Pattern Maintenance
 Ensuring that actors in the social system display the appropriate
characteristics
• Motives
• Needs
• Roles
 Tension Management
 dealing with the internal tensions and strains of actors as
they meet the demands of the social system.

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External Environment ACTION SYSTEMS
(Natural & Social)
within
PARSONS’ AGIL MODEL

ADAPTATION GOAL ATTAINMENT

Economic: Political:
Energy for Environmental Selective
Interactions Group-Determination
INTEGRATION LATENT PATTERN
MAINTENANCE &
TENSION
Cultural-Legal System: MANAGEMENT
Institutions of Kinship (family) System:
socialization and social Values and Norms,
control Beliefs and Ideologies

Bare Materials (Human Nature)

Talcott Parsons: The Social System
 Cybernetics Implementation
Basic Cybernetics In Biology
 Artificial intelligence  Bioengineering
 Robotics  Biocybernetics
 Computer Vision  Bionics
 Control systems  Homeostasis
 Emergence  Medical cybernetics
 Learning organization  Synthetic Biology
 New Cybernetics  Systems Biology
 Second-order cybernetics  Autopoiesis
 Interactions of Actors Theory  Neuroscience
 Conversation Theory
 Self-organization in cybernetics

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 Cybernetics Implementation
In Computer Science In Engineering
 Design Patterns
 Robotics  Adaptive systems
 Decision support system  Engineering cybernetics
 Cellular automaton  Ergonomics
 Simulation  Biomedical engineering
 Systems engineering

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 Cybernetics Implementation
In Management In Mathematics
 Entrepreneurial cybernetics  Dynamical system
 Management cybernetics  Information theory
 Organizational cybernetics  Systems theory
 Operations research
 Systems engineering

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 Cybernetics Implementation
In Psychology In Sociology
 Homunculus  Affect Control Theory
 Psycho-Cybernetics  Memetics
 Systems psychology  Sociocybernetics
 Perceptual Control Theory
 Psychovector Analysis
 Attachment Theory
 Human-robot interaction
 Consciousness
 Embodied cognition
 Cognitive psychology
 Mind-body problem
 Behavioral cybernetics

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 Standard & Cybernetic Approaches
Standard View: Aristotelian (Greek) - Cause & Effect

Cause Effect
The Open Loop
System
View

Cause
Effect
The (practical) Cybernetic System
view :
Closed Loop –
Has Feeback
Reaction

Irony: Cybernetics comes from a Greek Word!

26 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Feedback Problems ?
System more complicated
Can lead to run away disasters

Prices Up

Wages Up

Arms race (human or animal) is similar

However such feedback can be useful for quick changes
Feedback can also be advantageous - for instance for control

27 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Feedback Advantages - for Control
This will be illustrated by first considering the steersman

Without control
– like having eyes closed

With control
– looking where you
are going

28 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 As Applied To Other Systems

Speed Control of Car (or

other vehicle)

Positioning Robot
Gripper

29 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Temperature Control

Of Rooms

Of Human Body

30 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Temperature Control

Negative feedback in Negative feedback in biology

engineering thermoregulation thermoregulation

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 Learning
• Feedback Control fine for some simple systems.
• For more advanced, need intelligent control .. Must learn
• Learning is a feedback process:
‘You learn by your mistakes’
Trial and Error – used by our Robots / Babies

Well done?
Do Task
Better
Way
Refiner

32 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Neural Network Learning
• Like brain has network of neurons
• Each neuron sums products of each input and weight

Outputs
Inputs
of connection
• Provide inputs, calculate outputs
• But must learn weights

Inputs
Outputs
Network
Change
Weights

Learning

Expected Outputs

33 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006

 Human Computer Interaction
Just positioning a mouse is a feedback process
Ultimate HCI is ‘Virtual Reality’ – human computer loop

Image
Computer

Move
-ment
Human

Not only view world, but hear, feel, smell it also …

Also, Augmented Reality - mixed real and virtual world.
Teleoperation - remote control where operator given input to suggest he/she at remote
location. Needs force feedback
34 Source : Cybernetics – an Introduction © Dr Richard Mitchell 2006
THANK YOU