What Is Cybernetics?

The word `cybernetics` which has in recent years taken a permanent place in our vocabulary, is of Greek origin and means approximately `art of steering`. The Greeks used it to denote the skill of a pilot who steered a ship safely into harbour. At present the term denotes a new branch of science which still has something to do with the art of steering. In 1948 Norbert Wiener founded this branch when he wrote his: `Cybernetics- the science of control and communi- cation, in the animal and the machine`. The title of this book already shows that the sphere of influence of cybernetics encompasses all dynamic systems, both natural and artificial. For a cybernetic investigation of such systems it is irrel- evant of what material they are made and by what force they are driven. The only thing that matters is the abstract system detached from all technical details.