| '''Cybernetics''' is a [[transdisciplinary]]<ref name="transdisciplinary">{{cite journal |last = Müller |first = Albert |title = A Brief History of the BCL |journal = Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften |year = 2000 |volume = 11 |issue = 1 |pages = 9–30 |url = http://bcl.ece.illinois.edu/mueller/index.htm }}</ref> approach for exploring regulatory [[systems]]—their [[structure]]s, constraints, and possibilities. [[Norbert Wiener]] defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine".<ref name="W1948">{{cite book |last = Wiener |first = Norbert |author-link = Norbert Wiener |title = Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine |year = 1948 |publisher = [[MIT Press]] |location = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |title-link = Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine }}</ref> | | '''Cybernetics''' is a [[transdisciplinary]]<ref name="transdisciplinary">{{cite journal |last = Müller |first = Albert |title = A Brief History of the BCL |journal = Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften |year = 2000 |volume = 11 |issue = 1 |pages = 9–30 |url = http://bcl.ece.illinois.edu/mueller/index.htm }}</ref> approach for exploring regulatory [[systems]]—their [[structure]]s, constraints, and possibilities. [[Norbert Wiener]] defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine".<ref name="W1948">{{cite book |last = Wiener |first = Norbert |author-link = Norbert Wiener |title = Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine |year = 1948 |publisher = [[MIT Press]] |location = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |title-link = Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine }}</ref> |
| Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analyzed incorporates a closed signaling loop—originally referred to as a "circular causal" relationship—that is, where action by the system generates some change in its environment and that change is reflected in the system in some manner ([[feedback]]) that triggers a system change. Cybernetics is relevant to, for example, mechanical, physical, biological, cognitive, and [[social systems]]. The essential goal of the broad field of cybernetics is to understand and define the functions and processes of systems that have goals and that participate in circular, [[causality|causal chains]] that move from action to sensing to comparison with desired goal, and again to action. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to better accomplish the first two tasks.<ref name="Kelly">{{cite book |last = Kelly |first = Kevin |title = Out of control: The new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world |publisher = Addison-Wesley |location = Boston |year = 1994 |pages = |isbn = 978-0-201-48340-6 |oclc = 221860672 |url = https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell }}</ref> Cybernetics includes the study of [[feedback]], [[black box]]es and derived concepts such as [[communication]] and [[control theory|control]] in [[life|living organisms]], [[machine]]s and [[organization]]s including [[self-organization]]. | | Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analyzed incorporates a closed signaling loop—originally referred to as a "circular causal" relationship—that is, where action by the system generates some change in its environment and that change is reflected in the system in some manner ([[feedback]]) that triggers a system change. Cybernetics is relevant to, for example, mechanical, physical, biological, cognitive, and [[social systems]]. The essential goal of the broad field of cybernetics is to understand and define the functions and processes of systems that have goals and that participate in circular, [[causality|causal chains]] that move from action to sensing to comparison with desired goal, and again to action. Its focus is how anything (digital, mechanical or biological) processes information, reacts to information, and changes or can be changed to better accomplish the first two tasks.<ref name="Kelly">{{cite book |last = Kelly |first = Kevin |title = Out of control: The new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world |publisher = Addison-Wesley |location = Boston |year = 1994 |pages = |isbn = 978-0-201-48340-6 |oclc = 221860672 |url = https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell }}</ref> Cybernetics includes the study of [[feedback]], [[black box]]es and derived concepts such as [[communication]] and [[control theory|control]] in [[life|living organisms]], [[machine]]s and [[organization]]s including [[self-organization]]. |