ABSTRACT
The term ‘cybernetics’ has been used in different ways in popular articles and books and also in the technical literature. It has become a fairly general term that crops up in a variety of contexts. It still has, I suspect, a vague, somewhat mysterious meaning for most readers. This is not surprising, because the cyberneticians themselves have different individual perspectives. Some years ago I was asked by the American Society for Cybernetics to write a description of their field. I could do no better now and am therefore using this ‘Declaration’ as the first part of this chapter.
