Applied Cybernetics

The Squidoo View: lenses on the application of cybernetics and system theory

Managerial Cybernetics

This lens is dedicated to exploring the work of Stafford Beer and the development of his VSM.

It is especially interested in the applicaton of cybernetics to the field of organizational design, management and control.

Educational Cybernetics

Educational Cybernetics is concerned with improving both formal educational ventures and learning conversations.

It is based on Cybernetics - the science of communication and control - but is often influenced by the more general System Sciences including the thoeries surrounding embedded systems (ecological)modeling.

It is normally approached through the form of "action research" and should be considered as part of the sphere of Second Order Cybernetics as studying education systems is of course the studying of people systems and the process of studying systems we are in causes the systems and us to change.

Sociocybernetics

"Sociocybernetics can be defined as 'Systems Science in Sociology and Other Social Sciences' - systems science, because sociocybernetics is not limited to theory but includes application, empirical research, methodology, axiology (i.e., ethics and value research), and epistemology."
The Research Committee on sociocybernbetics, RC51)

Anthropocybernetics

Macro-Anthropocybernetics - Human cybernetics as they affect social systems.

Micro-Anthropocybernetics - Human cybernetics in their application to human individuals.

K3 - Applied Cybernetics

Examples across the spectrum of sciences

eco-cybernetics

Considers that in ecosystem, landscape and global ecology, an energetics reading of ecological systems is an expression of a cybernetic, systemic and holistic approach.

Application of cybernetics to manufacturing flexibility: a systems perspective

"Flexibility continues to be key to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, both in academia and industry, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the fundamental nature of flexibility. This lack of understanding has often led to overly optimistic expectations regarding the direct transformation of technological flexibility into manufacturing flexibility. A theoretical model of the firm, based on cybernetics, is proposed in this paper."

Architecture: A cybernetics-based design process for intelligent rooms

"Design is increasingly less about creating objects and more about creating scaffolds to support user experiences. What is observed about how people converse, behave and construct social networks has implications for how designers construct interactive experiences for and among social communities. So-called "intelligent rooms" are built spaces where sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) computation afford peripheral awareness of human activities and social context to provide the context for the environment's behaviour, reaction to and interaction with the human occupants. This article explores the role of cybernetics as a paradigm for shaping our thinking on a set of explicit principles to guide our understanding and shape our course of action in designing these intelligent rooms."