/cybernetics/

This thread is for the discussion of Cybernetic authors and literature. Broadly Cybernetics is the study of feedback, iteration and recursive loops. It's used to model interactions between 'agents'. Such models can be on programs, economy and society to name a few. Post your favorite books, essays and whitepapers. I'll start: Principia Cybernetica - http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ IEEE SMC Magazine - https://ieeesmc.org/publications/smc-magazine Cybernetic Psychology Portal - https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Cybernetics (Attached) Cybernetics (2nd Ed.) By Norbert Wiener Psycho-Cybernetics By Maxwell Maltz

https://archive.org/details/DesigningFreedom_CBC_Lectures How about some audio? Here's some Stafford Beer

Recently thought about diving into the subject, but still can't shake away the feeling that it has no practical use and is obsolete. I only hear about cybernetics in a historical context, and even then not much. Problem is, I don't have formal technical education, so maybe I'm missing something? If cybernetics really is an interesting and modern field and not some esoteric philosophical companion to CS, what should I begin my study with? Has no one still written anything better than Wiener? Is the Wiener's book attached by OP a solid introduction?

>>7544 I've recently gained some insight into the topic because of my interest in ways of cultural development as elaborated on in "Changing Images of Men" by the Stanford Research Institute. A (sort of) follow up study called "Changing Images 2000" by Thomas Hurley reflects a bit on the predictions the book originally did. Anyway, Hurley mentions Gregory Bateson in its opening statement, one of the OG developers of the cybernetic field of study. He has multiple books which I haven't had time to read yet, but his daughter created a documentary about her father called "An Ecology of Mind", which is available on TPB (I'm seeding). This documentary gives an interesting perspective on the relevance of the field of study. I do not consider the field obsolete: like the documentary, the implications of the SRI study in the 70's can testify its relevance, abstract (or "impractical") as it may be. I come across the SRI book after reading it in some conspiracy-minded online libraries, but I do not consider it something of that sort. The SRI study mentions what cultural undercurrent we live with and how this has come to be, among other things. It used to be the Mechanical Man image of men, but has changed to a Evolutionary Transformationalist image of men. To give a bit of insight into Bateson: the quote used by Hurley which is also mentioned in the documentary is as follows: Gregory Bateson tells the story of a computer scientist who wanted to know about the nature of mind. He asked his computer: "Do you compute that you will ever think like a human being?" After analyzing this question, the computer replied, "That reminds me of a story..." After which Hurley continues: "The computer got it right of course. Thinking in terms of stories is the fundamental way we make meaning of our lives." I consider the documentary to be a nice starting point into the world of cybernetics.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/playlist?list=PLB81F4FC0EDC4DECC [Fundamentals and History of Cybernetics by Prof. Umpleby] really cool series of lectures on the topic >>7544 about practicality i dunno but about relevance its just about the most important field of science ever since ww2 everything you see, touch and hear today comes from it i personally see it as super useful as it will deepen my understanding of...well just about everything! and that in turn will domino into everything else

My dad had this book when I was little.

>>7023 Cybernetics means a lot, and since it's a buzzword I like to first think of some similar meaning words, like govern, steer, controller. >>7544 The useful parts of cybernetic theory became control theory, heres a drone control theory course that was promoted on 420chan https://symbolaris.com/course/fcps16.html