Review can only be brief and very general. Many applications
Have already been made and are too well known to need descrip-
Tion here; more will doubtless be developed in the future. There
Are, however, two peculiar scientific virtues of cybernetics that
Are worth explicit mention.
One is that it offers a single vocabulary and a single set of con-
Cepts suitable for representing the most diverse types of system.
Until recently, any attempt to relate the many facts known about,
Say, servo-mechanisms to what was known about the cerebellum
Was made unnecessarily difficult by the fact that the properties of
Servo-mechanisms were described in words redolent of the auto-
Matic pilot, or the radio set, or the hydraulic brake, while those of
The cerebellum were described in words redolent of the dissecting
Room and the bedside— aspects that are irrelevant to the similari-
Ties between a servo-mechanism and a cerebellar reflex. Cyber-
Netics offers one set of concepts that, by having exact
Correspondences with each branch of science, can thereby bring
Them into exact relation with one other.
It has been found repeatedly in science that the discovery that
Two branches are related leads to each branch helping in the devel-
Opment of the other. (Compare S.6/8.) The result is often a mark-
Edly accelerated growth of both. The infinitesimal calculus and
Astronomy, the virus and the protein molecule, the chromosomes
And heredity are examples that come to mind. Neither, of course,
Can give proofs about the laws of the other, but each can give sug-
Gestions that may be of the greatest assistance and fruitfulness.
The subject is returned to in S.6/8. Here I need only mention the
Fact that cybernetics is likely to reveal a great number of interest-
Ing and suggestive parallelisms between machine and brain and
Society. And it can provide the common language by which dis-
Coveries in one branch can readily be made use of in the others.
The complex system. The second peculiar virtue of cybernet-
Ics is that it offers a method for the scientific treatment of the sys-
4
Tem in which complexity is outstanding and too important to be
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Ignored Such systems are, as we well know, only too common in
the biological world!
In the simpler systems, the methods of cybernetics sometimes
Show no obvious advantage over those that have long been
Known. It is chiefly when the systems become complex that the
New methods reveal their power.
Science stands today on something of a divide. For two centuries
It has been exploring systems that are either intrinsically simple or
That are capable of being analysed into simple components. The fact
That such a dogma as “vary the factors one at a time” could be
Accepted for a century, shows that scientists were largely concerned
In investigating such systems as allowed this method; for this
Method is often fundamentally impossible in the complex systems.
Not until Sir Donald Fisher’s work in the ’20s, with experiments
Conducted on agricultural soils, did it become clearly recognised that
There are complex systems that just do not allow the varying of only
One factor at a time— they are so dynamic and interconnected that
The alteration of one factor immediately acts as cause to evoke alter-
Ations in others, perhaps in a great many others. Until recently, sci-
Ence tended to evade the study of such systems, focusing its attention
On those that were simple and, especially, reducible (S.4/14).
In the study of some systems, however, the complexity could
Not be wholly evaded. The cerebral cortex of the free-living
Organism, the ant-hill as a functioning society, and the human
Economic system were outstanding both in their practical impor-
Tance and in their intractability by the older methods. So today we
See psychoses untreated, societies declining, and economic sys-
Tems faltering, the scientist being able to do little more than to
Appreciate the full complexity of the subject he is studying. But
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Science today is also taking the first steps towards studying “com-
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