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Relates to {{Assemblage-Geography}}
All points are interconnected and interdependent, unfolding in a nonlinear manner with no central source of authority.
Early versions of systems theory assumed that systems could be 'optimized' to a single condition. CAS analysis assumes that more than one system state can satisfy optimizing criteria, and so the system is able to gravitate to multiple equilibria.
This is relevant to the field of Relational Geography
An enslaved state can persist as an attractor (see Attractor States) within a Fitness Landscape.
Beyond its day-to-day usage, this term used in now employed in the social sciences to highlight the Path Dependency exhibited in many social systems. This is seen to contrast with prior conceptions like "the march of history", which imply a clear causal structure. By speaking about the work as something contingent, it also begs the question of what other "worlds" might have just as equally manifested, had things been slightly different.
Similar ideas are captured in the ideas of Non-Linearity, {{sensitivity-to-initial-conditions}}, History Matters.
Pictured below: the contingent trajectory of the double pendulum:
See also: Causal loop diagram - Wikipedia
In geography there has been a move away from thinking about space as a "thing" and to instead think about how different places exist due to how they interact with flows. Places that capture more flows, are more geographically relevant
The nature of a building block varies according to the system: it may take the form of an ant, a cell, a neuron or a building.
Complex Adaptive Systems theory provides a useful lens with which to understand various phenomena. Keep reading about Complexity
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Urban FieldsWe continue by telling people that they can look into the history and learn more about the cartograph. People
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The word Cybernetics comes from the Greek 'Kybernetes', meaning 'steersman' or 'oarsman'. It is the etymological root of the English 'Governor'. Cybernetics is related to an interest in dynamics that lead to internal rather than external governing.
Cybernetic thought is an important early precursor to Complex Systems thinking.
Imagine a ship, sailing towards a target (say an island). There are various forces (wind and currents) that act upon the ship to push it away from its trajectory. In order to maintain a trajectory towards the island, the steersman need not be aware of the speed or direction of the wind, or the velocity of the waves. Instead, he (or she), just needs to keep their eye on the target, and keep adjusting the rudder of the ship to correct for any deviations from the route.
In a sense, we have here a complete system that works to correct for any disturbances. The system is comprised of the target, any and all forces pushing the ship away from the target, the steersman registering the amount of deviation, and subsequently counterbalancing this through means of interaction with the rudder.
While it is true that the steersman is the agent that 'activates' the rudder, it is also true that the amount of deviation the target presents also 'activates' the steersman. Finally, the forces acting upon the ship are what activates the deviation. We thus have a complete cybernetic system, where the forces at work form a continuous loop, and where the loop, in turn, is able to self-regulate.
A cybernetic system works to dampen any disturbances or amplifying feedback that would move the trajectory away from a given optimum range. Thermostats work on cybernetic principles, where temperature fluctuations are dampened.
Like CAS, Cybernetics is concerned with how a system interacts with its environment. However, Cybernetics focus on systems subject to negative feedback: ones self-regulating to maintain regimes of stable equilibrium where disruptions (or Perturbations) are dampened.
Macy Conferences
Control
Stafford Beer, an early proponents of Cybernetics, discusses the Watt Flyball Regulator
Photo Credit and Caption: Underwater image of fish in Moofushi Kandu, Maldives, by Bruno de Giusti (via Wikimedia Commons)
Cite this page:
Wohl, S. (2022, 8 June). Cybernetics. Retrieved from https://kapalicarsi.wittmeyer.io/definition/cybernetics
Cybernetics was updated June 8th, 2022.
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Cybernetics
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Norbert Weiner →General Systems Theory
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Ludwig V. Bertalanffy →Second Order Cybernetics
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Heinz Von Foerster →Cybernetics | Information | Differentials
This is a default subtitle for this page. Read more and see related content for Gregory Bateson →This is a list of Terms that Cybernetics is related to.
Negative Feedback is the tendency for systems to employ mechanisms whereby any fluctuations from a particular behavior or trajectory are 'dampened'; that is to say, divergence from a norm is hindered.
Negative Feedback is described in more detail on the more general {{feedback-loops}} page. Read more and see related content for Negative Feedback →Claude Bernard
Negative Feedback | stability Read more and see related content for Homeostasis →Fill in all boxes here, each piece of information has a role in making pages, links, and visualizations in the site work well.
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