Cybernetics Glossary

A self-producing system that generates and maintains its own components and boundary, as defined by Maturana and Varela.

A system analyzed solely through its input-output behavior, without reference to internal mechanisms.

A causal structure in which effects feed back to influence their own causes, forming closed loops.

The transmission of information between components of a system, enabling coordination and control.

The ability to steer a system toward a desired state by adjusting its behavior based on feedback.

The transdisciplinary study of communication, control, and feedback in regulatory systems of all kinds.

The appearance of system-level properties not reducible to the properties of individual components.

A measure of disorder, randomness, or uncertainty in a system, borrowed from thermodynamics and information theory.

A circular pathway in which a system's output is returned as input, enabling self-regulation or amplification.

The study of observed systems from an external vantage point, treating the observer as separate from the system.

The maintenance of essential variables within viable limits through internal regulatory mechanisms.

An electromechanical device built by Ashby to demonstrate self-organizing, ultrastable behavior.

A difference that makes a difference (Bateson); a reduction in uncertainty that enables a system to act.

A feedback mechanism that counteracts deviation from a set point, promoting stability.

Negative entropy; a measure of order and organization that living systems import from their environment.

In second-order cybernetics, the agent whose acts of distinction and description are part of the system being studied.

A feedback mechanism that amplifies deviation, driving the system further from its current state.

The epistemological position that knowledge is actively constructed by the observer, not passively received.

Ashby's law stating that a controller must match the variety of the system it regulates.

The cybernetics of observing systems, which includes the observer as part of the system description.

The spontaneous emergence of order from local interactions without external direction.

Goal-directed behavior; cybernetics provided a mechanistic account of teleology through feedback.

Ashby's concept of deep adaptation where a system changes its internal structure when ordinary feedback fails to maintain viability.

The number of distinct states a system can exhibit; the fundamental measure of complexity in cybernetics.

Stafford Beer's model describing the five necessary subsystems for any autonomous, self-regulating organization.