This lens details with the development of Cybernetics (and to a lesser extent General Systems Theory) and the early research and philosophies of the founders of the disciplines.
Orientation
The how , why and whereof this Lens
Connective Summary
Cybernetics History and Biographies Macrosope
Some Founders of the Cybernetics Disciplines
- W. Ross Ashby
- psychiatrist; one of the founding fathers of cybernetics; known for the development of the concept of the homeostat and the law of requisite variety
- Stafford Beer - A brief review
- management cyberneticist; creator of the Viable System Model (VSM).
- In Memory of Stafford Beer
- The late Professor Stafford Beer bestrode Management as a colossus....
- Humberto Maturana
- biologist; creator, together with F. Varela, of the theory of autopoiesis.
- Gordon Pask
- creator of conversation theory: second order cybernetic concepts and applications to education.
- Francisco Varela
- biologist; creator, together with H. Maturana, of the theory of autopoiesis
- Norbert Wiener
- mathematician, coined the term cybernetics and wrote the first books about the subject
Links
- A History of Cybernetics
- A multi-part review of cybernetics' history by the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC).
- An essay on the Origins of Cybernetics
- by D J Stewart
"It is in the nature of scientific work that the divisions between specialisms should be self-perpetuating; and that once a field of inquiry has been split into a number of suitably small areas of study and the rights of specialists over these areas established, it becomes extremely difficult to begin again and allocate the subject matter differently. Usually this rigidity of the organisation of scientific inquiry is harmless, but, occasionally, a problem arises which can be solved only by cutting across the established divisions of labour. The development of a general theory of control and communication has been such a case and so has required the co-operation of representatives of many different sciences. ..... - Bertalanffy
- A Biography of Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy.
- Bertalanffy Biography
- Weltanschauung - A short Biography of Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Founder of General Systems Theory.
- The Official Stafford Beer Web Site
- Managed by Liverpool John Moores University to portray the holistic nature of Stafford Beer and his work. This is the authentic web site fully endorsed by Professor Stafford Beer.
- Cybermedia: Wiener
- View and Ideas of Norbert Wiener.
- Origins of Cybernetics
- An essay on the Origins of Cybernetics by DJ Stewart
- Early Days Bibliography
- A bibliography of the first decade of cybernetics by D J Stewart
Cyberneticians
as detail is sourced for these, they will be added approriately in modules above
Valentin Braitenberg,
George S. Chandy,
Joseph J. DiStefano III,
Heinz von Foerster,
Charles Francois,
Jay Forrester,
Ernst von Glasersfeld,
Francis Heylighen,
Erich von Holst,
Stuart Kauffman,
Sergei P. Kurdyumov,
Niklas Luhmann,
Warren McCulloch,
Horst Mittelstaedt,
Talcott Parsons,
Walter Pitts,
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown,
Robert Trappl,
Valentin Turchin,
Frederic Vester,
John N. Warfield,
Kevin Warwick,
(by 2 people)
