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Introduction to the Series
The subject of cybernetics is
quickly growing and there now exists a vast amount of information on all
aspects of this broad-based set of disciplines. The phrase "set of
disciplines" is intended to imply that cybernetics and all the
approaches to artificial (or machine) intelligence have a near identical
view-point. Furthermore, systems analysis, systems theory and operational
research often have a great deal in common with (and are in fact not always
discernibly different from) what is meant by cybernetics, as far as this
series is concerned: inevitably, computer science is bound to be involved
also.
The fields of application are
virtually unlimited and applications are discovered in the investigation or
modelling of any complex system. The most obvious applications have been in
the construction of artificially intelligent systems, the brain and nervous
system, and socio-economic systems. This can be achieved through either
simulation (copying as exactly as possible) or synthesis (achieving the same
or better end result by any means whatsoever).
The range of applications today has
become so broad it now includes such subjects as aesthetics, history and
architecture. Modelling can be carried out by computer programs, special
purpose models (analog, mathematical, statistical, etc.), and automata of
various kinds, including neural nets and TOTES. All that is required of the
system to be studied is that it be complex, dynamic, and capable of
"learning" and also have feedback or feedforward or both.
This is an international series.
FRANK GEORGE
