honavar@speedy.WISC.EDU (A Buggy AI Program) (10/26/87)
In article <3861@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar) writes: >In article <8300006@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu> goldfain@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu writes: >> >> On the other hand, whatever became of the term "cybernetics" that Norbert >>Weiner coined long ago? I thought its definition was quite suitable for >>denoting this research. > >As I recall, Weiner's original concern was with the design of >analog devices which, by virtue of feedback circuits, were capable of control >of other devices and adaptive behavior (which may be regarded as self-control). >Through my encounters with the literature as an AI researcher, I have observed >that the term "cybernetics" appears with greater frequency in Europe >(particularly the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom) than it does in >the United States. There is definitely a tendency to recognize that >Weiner's original principles could be generalized from analog to digital >hardware. However, I have the distinct impression that cybernetics grew >from the belief that behavioral knowledge was something which would ultimately >be encoded in the feedback loops, rather than in an explicit device concerned >with memory or the storage of a knowledge base. I would appreciate any >reactions to these comments simply to get the historical record straight. Some definitions (From "Cybernetic Medley" by Pekelis, MIR Publishers, Moscow, 1986 - which by the way, is an eminently readable book): "study of control and communication in machines and human beings" - -- Norbert Weiner, USA. "a 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" -- Academician A. N. Kolmogorov, USSR. "the art of securing efficient operation" -- L. Couffignal, France. "a general theory of causality which is interpreted accurately to the part of isomorphism" -- A. Markov, Associate fellow, USSR Academy of Sciences. "a science concerned with the control of sophisticated dynamic systems, which is theoretically based on mathematics and logic, and practically, on the use of means of automation, electronic computers of primarily control and data-processing types" -- Axel Berg "a science concerned with the laws of receiving, storing, transmitting, and processing information in sophisticated systems of control" -- Academician V. Glushkov, USSR. "a science concerned with systems that have vitality, that is, which behave so as to survive" -- Stafford Beer, British mathematician -- Vasant Honavar (honavar@speedy.cs.wisc.edu)