The human face of cybernetics: Heinz von Foerster and the history of a movement that failed...
Purpose - To discuss the concept of cybernetics, and to point out its complexities. Design/methodology/approach - Cybernetics can be seen as a scientific concept of harnessing complexity as a feedback phenomenon and a project aimed at establishing a new control science and adaptive technology based on the formalization of complexity. Today, we still do not have adaptive or complex computers. Findings - Cybernetics has failed both as a concept and a project, and is becoming a case for historians. But before it is classified as just a short scientific episode between the atomic bomb and cyberwar, a closer look will show that it was not only a military sponsored project driven by the cold war of the 1950s but also a rebellious movement inspired by the visions of the 1960s. Heinz von Foerster more than anyone else represented this human face of cybernetics. Originality/value - Considers some of the thought-provoking ideas of Heinz von Foerster in the history of cybernetics.
cybernetics history complexity theory