Ashby W.R. Introduction to cybernetics. M., 2006.
Prigogine I., Stengers I. Order out of chaos. M.: Progress, 1986.
Haken G. Information and self-organization. M.: Mir. 1991.
Capra F. Web of Life. New scientific understanding of living systems. K.,: Sofia, M.: Publishing House Gelios, 2002.
Wiener N. Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in Animals and Machines. M. 1983.
Questions for self-control
What is management?
What dissipative structures do you know?
What is Brusselator?
What is the relationship between management and self-organization in social systems?
Lecture No. 6. The structure of the noosphere and the interaction of nature and society
The term “noosphere” is etymologically related to the Greek word “noos” - mind. The concept itself was first used by the French scientist E. Leroy, noting that he came to this idea together with another researcher P. Teilhard de Chardin. At the same time, they were based on the ideas of V.I. Vernadsky, voiced in 1922 - 1923 during lectures at the Sorbonne.
Later, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin developed a teleological concept of the noosphere, which was based on theosophical ideas (the Omega point as the final point of evolution, at which the union of man with God occurs). IN AND. Vernadsky developed the idea of the noosphere in a completely different way. This difference in the approach to the interpretation of the concept of the noosphere is called the Vernadsky-Chardin dilemma, as a contrast between objective and subjective factors in the formation of the noosphere 32.
The doctrine of the noosphere was formed at the end of his life by V.I. Vernadsky. He first used this term in a letter to B.L. Lichkov on September 7, 1936 in Carlsbad, and said it publicly in 1937 in a report “On the importance of radiogeology for modern geology,” which he read at the 17th session of the International Geological Congress. In 1945, after Vernadsky’s death, his article “Biosphere and Noosphere” was published in the American Scientist magazine, which became widely known in scientific circles. But Vernadsky’s main ideas about the noosphere were outlined in two works, unfinished during his lifetime, on which he worked during the war years. V.I. Vernadsky’s ideas about the noosphere were most fully developed in the work “Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon.” It was first published in 1977, then, with amendments, included in the book “Philosophical Thoughts of a Naturalist” (1988), and the 3rd edition as a separate book was published in 1991 33 .
IN AND. Vernadsky identified the geological role of life, living matter in planetary processes, and in this living matter he identified man as a geological force that changes the natural biogeochemical processes of the planet. In his opinion, the noosphere is a material formation, as a result of the natural historical development of the biosphere and as a result of the systematic work of mankind. The formation of the noosphere is a natural phenomenon, sharply materially manifested in the human environment
The prerequisites for the formation of the noosphere are associated with the natural process of cephalization. This is a certain direction of evolution, expressed as a complication of the central nervous system and an increase in the volume of the brain.
The geological effect of humanity on the biosphere manifested itself a considerable time after its appearance in the biosphere, first with the mastery of fire, then with the development of agriculture.
The noosphere is not just “humanized nature”, it is a state of the natural environment consciously formed by man 34 .
Vernadsky’s works name a number of specific conditions necessary for the formation and existence of the noosphere:
human settlement of the entire planet,
a dramatic transformation in the means of communication and exchange between different countries,
strengthening ties, including political ones, between all states of the Earth,
the predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere,
expanding the boundaries of the biosphere and going into space,
discovery of new energy sources,
equality of people of all races and religions,
increasing the role of the broad masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy,
freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of political, religious and other theories; creating conditions favorable for free scientific thought,
improving people's well-being; creating a real opportunity to prevent malnutrition and hunger, poverty and reduce the impact of diseases,
intelligent transformation of the primary nature of the Earth in such a way that it is capable of satisfying the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of a growing population,
exclusion of wars from the life of society 35 .
Vernadsky believed that the formation of the noosphere is associated with the period when people become able to organize their activities consciously. The current situation in this sense is assessed pessimistically - pollution of the natural environment, irrational use of resources, wars - one cannot talk about the advent of the era of the noosphere, but one can talk about formation, about the transition to the period of noogenesis (evolution controlled by human consciousness) 36 .
N.N. Moiseev writes about the process of transition of the biosphere into a new, noospheric state, as a “painful and slow process of developing new principles for coordinating one’s actions and new behavior of people,” “new morality” 37.
The idea of the noosphere underlies the noospheric strategy for the development of civilization, which is different from the extensive strategy of past centuries. Rationality in extraction, use, processing, disposal is the key to this strategy 38 .
Sometimes components of the noosphere are distinguished - the anthroposphere, the technosphere, living and inanimate nature modified by man, and the sociosphere, while the anthroposphere is understood as a set of people as organisms, the sociosphere as a set of social factors and institutions, and the technosphere as a part of the biosphere, radically transformed by man. in technical buildings and structures 39.
Literature
Vernadsky V.I. Biosphere and noosphere. M., 2002.
Moiseev N. Man and the noosphere. M., 1990.
Ursul A.D. The path to the noosphere: The concept of survival and sustainable development of civilization. M., 1993.
Questions for self-control:
What is the history of the formation of the concept of “noosphere”?
What does cephalization mean?
What are the conditions for the formation and existence of the noosphere?
What meaning did N.N. put into the concept of the noosphere? Moiseev?
Lecture No. 7. Anthropogenic-natural factors of instability in the biosphere.
Global and regional climate changes.
Meteorological data indicate an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's surface (for example, in Russia, the average annual surface air temperature has increased by 1 ºC over the past 100 years). However, in a number of regions (southern USA, Brazilian Amazon) some cooling is occurring. The frequency and intensity of extreme weather events (storms, floods, droughts, winter thaws, etc.) are increasing.
Many scientists correlate global climate change with an increase in the concentration of so-called greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.) in the atmosphere.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that there is a 90% probability of ongoing climate change being anthropogenic. A number of researchers note that the Earth has experienced global climate change before, experiencing cooling and warming, but the rate of change in average temperature in our time is really high. There is a point of view that denies anthropogenic influence on climate 40
Framework Convention and Kyoto Protocol.
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed, which entered into force on March 21, 1994.
This is an important political document for the entire international community, focusing on the problem of global climate change. The UNFCCC has a framework character. It provides the rationale for the need for an international agreement regarding global climate change. The Convention uses the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”, which is reflected in softer requirements for countries with economies in transition.
All parties to the UNFCCC accepted certain obligations to inventory anthropogenic emissions from sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases, develop national programs to limit climate change, scientific cooperation and information exchange and education of the general public on these issues.
In December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. The Protocol is an international political and legal document adopted as part of the implementation of the UNFCCC. It came into force on February 19, 2005. Only 2 countries refused to participate in the Protocol until 2013 - the USA and Australia.
The Protocol established a list of greenhouse gases, the total emissions of which will be taken into account when assessing the achievement of target indicators. These are carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O), as well as three groups of long-lived industrial gases - hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6). Industrialized countries must reduce their total emissions of these gases by at least 5.2% compared to 1990 levels, and do this by 2008-2012.
The EU countries have the highest commitments to reduce emissions (8%), Australia, Iceland and Norway can increase their emissions by 8%, 10% and 1% respectively. Russia and Ukraine can maintain emissions at 1990 levels. There are no emission reduction obligations for developing countries.
The significance of the Kyoto Protocol lies in the translation of the Convention's framework agreement into the language of clear, practical mechanisms. It is important that the obligations are legally binding for the participating countries.
Another significant point is the possibility of a flexible approach, which is provided by the system of trading quotas for greenhouse gas emissions. This approach will allow countries where the costs of emission reduction measures are high to reduce the economic burden by meeting part of their obligations by purchasing corresponding emission allowances in countries where such measures are cheaper for various reasons 41 .
Another global problem is the change in the ozone layer. There is a drop in ozone concentration in the Earth's ozone layer, which is associated with anthropogenic impact and the release of freons. (There are also hypotheses pointing to the natural nature of the formation of “ozone holes.”
The thinning of the ozone layer was first noticed over Antarctica in 1985, and was later also recorded in the northern hemisphere over parts of Europe and North America. It is believed that the destruction of the ozone layer leads to pollution by “hard” ultraviolet radiation, which is dangerous for animal and plant organisms.
The protection of the ozone layer is carried out on the basis of such international documents as the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer.
Problems of biodiversity decline
Biological diversity (or biodiversity) is understood as the diversity of life in all its manifestations, as a combination of three elements - genetic diversity (diversity of genes and alleles), species diversity and diversity of ecosystems (this understanding is enshrined in such an international document as the UN Convention on Biological Diversity).
Each species, regardless of the degree of its usefulness to humans, is valuable; each species has a unique set of genes formed in the process of evolution, therefore the entire gene pool of the biosphere is subject to protection.
The main causes of decline in biological diversity are habitat destruction or disturbance; fishing (hunting), introduction of alien species, direct destruction for the purpose of protecting agricultural products, accidental destruction (on roads, during military operations, on power lines, etc.), environmental pollution. In addition, the destruction of one species may lead to the disappearance of several more.
The nature of Russia has a significant level of biodiversity; on the territory of the country there are more than 12,500 species of vascular plants, 2,200 - bryophytes, about 3,000 - lichens, 320 - mammals, more than 732 - birds, 75 - reptiles, about 30 amphibians and almost 343 species of fresh water fish , 9 - cyclostomes and about 1,500 species of marine fish. Our country's contribution to global biodiversity is great (see table).
Main parameters of biodiversity of the Russian Federation 42
|
Taxonomic group |
Estimation of the number of species in Russia |
% in world fauna |
|
Plants |
||
|
Seaweed | ||
|
Lichens | ||
|
Bryophytes | ||
|
Vascular plants | ||
|
Animals |
||
|
Protozoa | ||
|
Coelenterates | ||
|
Flatworms | ||
|
Roundworms | ||
|
Shellfish | ||
|
Crustaceans | ||
|
Arachnids | ||
|
Insects |
About 100,000 | |
|
Freshwater fish | ||
|
Marine fish |
About 1500 | |
|
Amphibians | ||
|
Reptiles | ||
|
Mammals | ||
The protection of biodiversity in Russia is carried out, in particular, within the framework of a system of protected areas of various types. A special role is played by maintaining the “Red Books”, as well as the development of economic and political mechanisms for the protection of biodiversity, research and educational work.
Problems of using natural resources.
Natural resources are a set of natural objects and phenomena used in the present, past and future for direct and indirect consumption, contributing to the creation of material wealth, reproduction of labor resources, maintaining the conditions of human existence, and improving the quality of life 43 . These are soil cover, beneficial wild plants, animals, minerals, water (for water supply, irrigation, industry, energy, transport), favorable climatic conditions (mainly heat and moisture), wind energy, etc.
Natural resources are classified according to their source of origin (biological, mineral, energy), according to their belonging to certain components of nature (land, forest, water, energy and other resources), according to the degree of depletion (inexhaustible and exhaustible, divided into renewable and non-renewable) K Inexhaustible include space and climate resources - air, precipitation, solar radiation, wind energy, sea tides, etc.
Biological resources (animals and plants), as well as some mineral resources (salts deposited in lakes, for example), are considered renewable. The rate at which renewable resources are used must be consistent with the time required to regenerate them. Most mineral resources are classified as non-renewable. Relatively renewable resources are soil and forest resources. Some natural resources have the properties of replenishment and substitutability.
Renewal of natural resources - their natural restoration over time or cultivation. Some natural resources are renewable quantitatively, but non-renewable (non-renewable qualitatively) 44 .
To carry out a comprehensive assessment of the severity of the problems of depletion of natural resources, indicators of the intensity of use and potential reserves are correlated. For renewable resources, indicators such as the level of production and the potential for its annual growth are taken into account 45.
The current state of renewable resources is associated with a number of problems - the disappearance of a number of animal and plant species (about 400), the annual reduction in forest area and the deterioration of the structure of the land fund, a simultaneous increase in water consumption and water pollution.
THE MACHINE IS SMARTER THAN ITS CREATOR
Norbert Wiener
This sketch by Wiener is a response to the book of the English scientist W.R. Ashby “Design of the Brain”, published in 1952 and forming an important stage in the formation of cybernetics (Ashby W.R. Design for a Braian. - New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1952; Russian translation from the 2nd English ed.: Ashby W .R. Design of the brain. - M.: IL, 1962). Subsequently, Ashby wrote “Introduction to Cybernetics” (Ashby W.R. An Introduction to Cybernetics. - London: Chapman & Hall, 1956; Russian translation: Ashby W.R. Introduction to Cybernetics. - M.: IL, 1958)
The last ten years have witnessed the emergence of a new perspective on communication technology and on automata as communication devices. The work done here can already be divided into two stages. The first of these was the one on which my own work appeared and on which Claude Shannon - one of the most original researchers in this field - directed efforts to clarify the very concept of communication, to the theory and practice of measuring communication, to the analysis of management as an essentially one phenomenon. nature with connection and in general to the grammar of the new science, which I called cybernetics
Dr. Ashby's work represents a branch of cybernetics that dates back to the dawn of science and is devoted not so much to elementary questions of definition and vocabulary as to those questions of philosophy of the subject that affect the specific properties of cybernetic systems and which, although related to definitions, are questions of fact and logic and go far beyond definitions.
Questions explored by Dr. Ashby include, but are not limited to: What is learning? must the capacity for learning be invested in the machine through some very specific organization, or can the phenomenon of learning be discovered by a machine with an organization that is largely random? can a machine be smarter than its creator?
All these questions can be posed in two different ways. On a purely biological level, such reasoning has occupied biologists since biology emerged from the stage of purely theological justifications; they go to the heart of the problems of evolution, especially Darwinian evolution through natural selection. On the mechanical plane, these problems arise in connection with the much more limited machines that man creates, and the conditions to which he must submit, consciously appropriating to himself the functions of the demiurge.
Machines created by man and machines created by nature
Fully recognizing the greater efficiency and adaptability of the structure and action of natural machines compared to man-made machines, it is necessary at the same time to note that these latter have introduced new weapons into the arsenal of science for both natural and mental experiments. Their role is similar to the role of the fruit fly - Drosophila. The latter seems to have been deliberately created in order to transform genetics from a science of centuries-old observations, which it would inevitably be if limited to observations of humans and large domestic animals, into a science compatible with the spatial and temporal limitations of a small biological laboratory. Likewise, man-made machines promise to bring our study of the biological processes of learning and adaptation, of individual development and evolution, to a scale where we can disentangle these tenuous concepts with a confidence and precision comparable to that which we have in physics and technology. laboratories. Among scientists who not only talk about these things, but actually do something, Dr. Ashby occupies one of the leading places.
The main idea of natural selection, as applied by Durenne to the theory of evolution, is that the flora and fauna of the earth are composed of forms which have come down to us merely as residual forms, and not by any direct process of striving for perfection. This is not a piece of marble transformed into a perfect sculpture by the hands of a creative artist, but rather one of those wind-sculpted pillars of sandstone that adorn the canyons of Utah. Random erosion processes combined to form these stone pillars, which have the appearance of castles and monuments and even figures of people and animals. But their beauty and imagery are not the same as the beauty and imagery of a painting, but like those of Rorschach blots - in other words, not for the eye of the artist, but for the eye of the viewer. Likewise, the apparent theodicy hinted at by the splendor and intelligence of the infinitely complex kingdom of nature is, according to Darwinism, only what remains after the accidental process of growth and change, when the softer and less durable manifestations have crumbled under the sands of time and under the burden of own weakness.
Sustainability is a characteristic of the world
Nature has another way of demonstrating residual forms, akin to natural selection, but with a different emphasis. Since the discoveries of the Curies, we have known that the atoms of some elements undergo progressive metamorphosis. If you take a radium atom, then sooner or later a metamorphosis will definitely occur with it, during which it begins to emit radium emanations. We cannot say when this transformation will occur, because, apparently, it occurs by chance. But we can say that after some time, called the half-life of radium, the probability that the transformation has occurred will be one in two.
But radioactive elements do not undergo a single transformation, but a whole series of successive transformations into other elements, and each of them has its own half-life. Elements with a long half-life can be said to be stable, while elements with a short half-life can be said to be unstable. If we now trace any element in its transformations, then, as a rule, it will exist for a long time in the form of elements with a long half-life and for a short time in the form of elements with a short half-life.
As a result, if we observe the process for a very long time, we will find that elements with long half-lives are more common than elements with short half-lives. This means that a study based on the frequency of observed elements and not tracing the fate of a single atom easily misses highly radioactive materials with short half-lives. From this we see that sustainability is characteristic of most of the world. Thus, the absence of unstable forms, which we find in biological series due to their inability to survive in the struggle for existence, is observed in the evolution of radioactive elements because unstable forms pass so quickly that we do not notice them to the same extent as we notice forms of more sustainable.
One consequence of this statistical predominance of stability in the universe is that we know very little about what happens during critical periods of instability. Take, for example, the well-known effect discovered by Arthur Compton: when a photon collides with an electron, both bounce in directions that can only be determined statistically. There is at least a suspicion that in fact the electron and photon, initially not connected, enter into a connection here for too short a period of time for us to determine the actual course of events, and that they then leave this connection through increasingly weaker connections, each of which proceeds in its own way. Some physicists, such as Vohm, have suggested that the actual course of events is not so uncertain, but that during that insignificant period of time when the particles are together, a very complex sequence of events takes place, determining their further behavior. If this is true, then a significant part of the most important physical phenomena is unknown to us, because we pass through them too quickly and do not know how to register them.
Of these two types of natural selection: through the destruction of the unsuitable and through too hasty passage through the unsustainable, the latter is the only one possible in the case of conservation phenomena that prevent the simple elimination of the unsustainable. Ashby is looking at very complex machines in which elements are connected more or less randomly, so we know something about the statistics of connections and very little about the details of them. These machines, generally speaking, are destroyed very quickly if safety elements are not introduced into them, like amplitude limiters in electrical circuits. The action of such limiters gives the system some conservatism. Therefore, Ashby machines tend to spend most of their existence in relatively stable states, and their unstable states, although they exist, are so limited in time that they show up very little in the statistical study of the system.
It should be remembered that in the phenomena of life and behavior we are interested in relatively stable, and not absolutely stable, states. Absolute stability is achievable only at very high entropy values and is essentially equivalent to thermal death. If the system is protected from thermal death by the conditions to which it is subject, then it will spend most of its existence in states that are not states of complete equilibrium, but are similar to equilibrium. In other words, entropy here is not an absolute, but a relative maximum or, at least, changes very slowly in the vicinity of these states. It is precisely such quasi-equilibrium - not truly equilibrium - states that are associated with life and thinking and with all other organic processes.
Cars with eyes and ears?
It seems to me that it would be quite in the spirit of Dr. Ashby to say that these quasi-equilibrium states, as a rule, are states in which there is a relatively weak exchange of energy between the system and the environment, but a relatively large information connection between them. The systems discussed by Dr. Ashby have eyes and ears and in this way receive information to adapt to the external environment. They are close to automata in their internal energy balance, but are very far from them in their external entropy, or information balance. Therefore, the equilibrium they strive for is an equilibrium in which they are well adapted to changes in the external environment and are to a certain extent insensitive to such changes. They are in a state of partial homeostasis.
Dr. Ashby designs his homeostat as an instrument having just such a connection with the external environment and detecting some randomness in the internal structure. Such a machine can learn to a certain extent, i.e. adapt the forms of their behavior to a stable balance with the environment. However, the real homeostats developed so far by Dr. Ashby, although capable of absorbing information from the environment, contain in their internal structure an amount of information and decisions that obviously exceeds that which passes through their, so to speak, sense organs. In short, these machines can learn, but they are not smarter than their creators, or nearly as smart. However, Dr. Ashby believes that it is actually possible to create machines that are smarter than their creators; and on this I completely agree with him. The amount of information that a device can perceive through its senses cannot be a priori limited to those values that require no more decisions than were already included in the structure of the device. Typically, the system's ability to absorb information grows at first quite slowly compared to the amount of information embedded in it. And only after the embedded information has passed a certain point, the machine’s ability to absorb further information will begin to catch up with the internal information of its structure. But at a certain degree of complexity, the acquired information can not only equal that which was originally put into the machine, but also far exceed it; at this stage of complexity the machine acquires some of the essential characteristics of a living being.
Complexity required
The situation under consideration allows for an interesting comparison with an atomic bomb, an atomic reactor, or a fire in a hearth. If you try to build an atomic reactor or an atomic bomb too small, or light a large bast log with one match, you will find that any atomic or chemical reaction you initiate will die out as soon as its stimulus is removed, and will never grow or remain at the same level . Only when the igniter reaches a certain size, or a certain number of molecules are collected in an atomic reactor, or the mass of an isotope of uranium reaches a certain explosive size, will the situation change, and we will see not only fleeting and incomplete processes. In the same way, the truly significant and active phenomena of life and learning begin only after the organism has reached a certain critical stage of complexity; and although this complexity is probably achievable by purely mechanical means, not too difficult, it will nevertheless require the utmost effort.
From this analysis of just a few of the ideas in Dr. Ashby's book, we can conclude that it provides us with a broad perspective on new frontiers of thought. Dr. Ashbn, although essentially possessed of a strong mathematical imagination, is not in the full sense of a professional mathematician, and many of the ideas he sketched must be carried out by professional mathematicians. He does not consider himself a professional mathematician, but he undoubtedly has integrity and talent, and his book should be read as one of the first fruits of a field that deserves diligent cultivation.
Wiener N. A Machine Wiser Than Its Maker.
//Electronics. – 1953. – Vol. 26. – No. 6. – R. 368–374.
The book is intended both for specialists in the field of applied mathematics, computer science and cybernetics, and for representatives of other sciences who are interested in cybernetics and want to apply its methods and apparatus in their specialty. Read online or download the book “Introduction to Cybernetics” on fb2, authored by William Ross Ashby. The book was published in 2015, belongs to the genre “Computer Literature” and is published by Lenand Publishing House, Editorial URSS.
| Preface to the Russian edition | |||
| Preface by the author | |||
| Chapter 1. | New | ||
| Features of cybernetics | |||
| Applications of cybernetics | |||
| A complex system | |||
| Part I. Mechanism | |||
| Chapter 2. | Changes | ||
| Transformations | |||
| Repeated changes | |||
| Chapter 3. | Deterministic machines | ||
| Vectors | |||
| Chapter 4. | Cars with entrance | ||
| Connecting systems | |||
| Feedback | |||
| Independence within the whole | |||
| Very large system | |||
| Chapter 5. | Sustainability | ||
| Outrage | |||
| Balance in part and as a whole | |||
| Chapter 6. | Black box | ||
| Isomorphic machines | |||
| Homomorphic machines | |||
| Very large "box" | |||
| Incompletely observable "box" | |||
| Part II. Diversity | |||
| Chapter 7. | Amount of variety | ||
| Diversity | |||
| Diversity Limits | |||
| The Importance of Diversity Constraints | |||
| Variety in cars | |||
| Chapter 8. | Transmitting diversity | ||
| Circulation of a coded message | |||
| Transfer from system to system | |||
| Chapter 9 | Continuous transmission | ||
| Markov chain | |||
| Entropy | |||
| Noises | |||
| Part III. Regulation and management | |||
| Chapter 10. | Regulation in biological systems | ||
| Survival | |||
| Table of contents | |||
| Chapter 11. | Necessary variety | ||
| Law of Requisite Variety | |||
| Control | |||
| Some variations on the theme | |||
| Chapter 12. | Error-controlled regulator | ||
| Markov machine | |||
| Markov regulation | |||
| Deterministic regulation | |||
| Amplifier | |||
| Games and strategies | |||
| Chapter 13. | Regulation of a very large system | ||
| Repeated disturbances | |||
| Regulator design | |||
| Number of selection | |||
| Choice and machines | |||
| Chapter 14. | Increased regulation | ||
| What is an amplifier? | |||
| Regulation and choice | |||
| Gain in the brain | |||
| Strengthening mental abilities | |||
| Appendix I | |||
| Appendix II | |||
| Literature | |||
| Literature added during translation | |||
| Answers to the exercises | |||
| Alphabetical index | |||
Analogies between:
a) conscious, purposeful human activity;
b) the work of man-made machines;
c) various types of activities of living organisms, which are perceived as appropriate, despite the absence of consciousness governing them.
Human thought has been searching for centuries for explanations of these analogies both on the paths of positive knowledge and on the paths of religious and philosophical speculation. A solid basis for their scientific study and rational philosophical understanding was created when:
1) Darwin proposed a consistently developed theory of the natural origin of the purposeful structure of living organisms and, in particular, the origin of the complex apparatus that allows living organisms to pass on their purposeful structure to their descendants;
2) Pavlov established the possibility of objectively studying the behavior of animals and humans and the brain processes regulating this behavior without any subjective hypotheses expressed in psychological terms.
Over the past decades, the rapid development of communication technology (radio, television), automation and computer technology has led to a significant expansion of the actual material for comparing the operation of machines with the activity of living organisms and with the conscious activity of humans. At the same time, the use of analogies between the work of the machines they create and the work of human consciousness began to increasingly penetrate into the thinking of engineers. For example, communications media perceive “information” and transmit it accurately or with “errors”; the machine guns are tasked with following one or another “strategy” or “tactic” and even “learning” from the enemy the tactics he has learned, in order to develop an appropriate response tactic; computers have “storage devices” (“memory”); programming machines themselves “develop a program” for complex calculations, using more or less perfect “logic,” etc. It is difficult to discern any philosophically tinged intentionality in this practice of engineers: these analogies are simply too natural and clearly help engineers think and invent.
It is quite clear that the “expedient” work of machines has no independence and is only a technical appendage to the expedient human activity. However, the rich experience accumulated in the design of automata and computers is now of great interest as a stock of models that help to imagine possible natural control and regulatory mechanisms. The processes of formation of conditioned reflexes are successfully studied using machines that simulate these processes. Modern works analyzing brain activity rely heavily on analogies with complex electronic machines. In modern works on the theory of heredity, ideas about methods of “coding” information developed in the technical theory of communications are widely used.
To understand the reasons for the emergence of a new science - cybernetics - another consequence of the latest development of the above branches of technology is more significant. Their development not only provides new material for the philosophical analysis of the concepts of “control,” “regulation,” and “expediency” as applied to machines and living organisms, but, in addition, led to the emergence of some auxiliary special disciplines of a non-philosophical nature.
These disciplines arose directly from practical needs under the names "information theory", "theory of algorithms", "theory of automata". The concrete results obtained within their limits are now quite numerous. For example, they allow: 1) to estimate the “amount of information” that can be reliably transmitted by a given transmitting device or stored by a given storage device; 2) estimate the smallest number of simple links with a given action scheme, which is necessary so that they can be used to construct a control device that performs certain specified functions. In both examples, the results are expressed by certain mathematical formulas, but these results are applied in exactly the same way both when constructing machines and when analyzing the activities of living organisms.
The merit of N. Wiener is the establishment of the fact that the totality of these disciplines (in the creation of some of them Wiener took a significant part) naturally unites into a new science with a fairly defined subject of its own research. It is now too late to argue about the degree of Wiener’s luck when, in his famous book in 1948, he chose the name “cybernetics” for the new science. This name is fairly established and is perceived as a new term with little connection to its Greek etymology. Cybernetics deals with the study of systems of any nature that are capable of perceiving, storing and processing information and using it for control and regulation. At the same time, cybernetics widely uses the mathematical method and strives to obtain specific special results that make it possible to both analyze such systems (restore their structure based on experience in handling them) and synthesize them (calculate circuit diagrams of systems capable of carrying out given actions), Thanks to this By its specific nature, cybernetics in no way reduces to a philosophical discussion of the nature of “expediency” in machines and living organisms, nor does it replace a general philosophical analysis of the range of phenomena it studies.
The position of the author of the book - W.R. Ashby - as a biologist who has quite thoroughly studied the abstract, mathematical side of the matter is very advantageous for popularizing the general ideas of cybernetics among people for whom the mathematical apparatus presents great difficulties, and an excessively detailed entry into the issues of technical cybernetics it would also be difficult. At the same time, W.R. Ashby is quite cautious in his conclusions and is far from the often encountered advertising style of glorifying cybernetics. However, the reader should be critical of the author's statements of a methodological and philosophical nature. It should also be borne in mind that some of the author's conclusions are debatable.
A. Kolmogorov
Many workers in the biological sciences - physiologists, psychologists, sociologists - are interested in cybernetics and would like to apply its methods and apparatus in their own specialty. However, many of them are hampered by the belief that this must be preceded by a long study of electronics and the higher branches of pure mathematics; they were under the impression that cybernetics was inseparable from these subjects.
The author, however, is convinced that this impression is false. The basic ideas of cybernetics are essentially simple and do not require reference to electronics. More complex applications may require more complex apparatus, but much can be done, especially in the biological sciences, with very simple apparatus; it must only be applied with a clear and deep understanding of the principles involved. If the subject is substantiated by generally accepted, easily accessible principles and then presented gradually, step by step, then, in the opinion of the author, there is no reason to expect that even a worker with elementary mathematical knowledge will not be able to achieve a complete understanding of the basic principles of the subject. And such an understanding will allow him to decide exactly which apparatus he must still master for further work and - what is especially important - which apparatus he can safely ignore as not being relevant to his tasks.
This book should serve as such an introduction. She starts with general, easily accessible concepts and shows step by step how these concepts can be refined and developed until they lead to cybernetics issues such as feedback, stability, regulation, ultra-stability, information, coding, noise, etc. .d. Nowhere in the book is knowledge of mathematics beyond basic algebra required. In particular, the proofs are nowhere based on infinitesimal calculus (the few references to it can be safely ignored; they are given only to show how infinitesimal calculus can be applied to the issues under consideration). Illustrations and examples are taken mainly from biological, less often from physical sciences. There is little overlap with the book The Structure of the Brain, so the two books are almost independent of each other. However, they are closely related and are best viewed as complementary: each helps to understand the other.
The book is divided into three parts.
Part I examines the main features of the mechanisms; it discusses issues such as representing mechanisms through transformations, the concept of "robustness", the concept of "feedback", the various forms of independence that can exist within mechanisms, and the coupling of mechanisms to each other. This part sets out the principles that should be followed when a system is so large and complex (for example, the brain or society) that it can only be considered statistically. It also discusses the case of a system that is not entirely accessible to direct observation—the so-called “black box theory.”
Part II applies the methods developed in Part I to the study of the concept of "information" and to the study of the encoding of information as it passes through mechanisms. This part examines the application of these methods to various problems in biology and attempts to show at least part of the abundance of their possible applications. This leads to Shannon's theory, so that, having read this part, the reader can easily move on to study the works of Shannon himself.
In Part III, the concepts of mechanism and information are applied to biological systems of regulation and control - both innate, studied by physiology, and acquired, studied by psychology. It shows how hierarchies of such regulatory and control systems can be built and how, through this, increased regulation becomes possible. It provides a new and generally simpler presentation of the principle of ultra-stability. This part lays the foundations for the general theory of complex regulatory systems, further developing the ideas of the book “The Structure of the Brain.” Thus it provides, on the one hand, an explanation of the extraordinary power of regulation inherent in the brain, and, on the other hand, principles on the basis of which the designer can build machines possessing such a power.
Although the book is intended as an easy introduction, it is not just talk about cybernetics - it is written for those who want to enter this field through independent work, for those who want to actually master the subject practically. Therefore, it contains many easy exercises, carefully selected in difficulty, with directions and detailed answers, so that the reader can check his comprehension of what he has read and exercise his new intellectual muscles as he progresses. A few exercises that require special equipment are marked with an asterisk: “*Exercise.” Omitting them will not hinder the reader's progress.
For ease of reference, the material is divided into paragraphs; All references contain paragraph numbers, and since these numbers appear at the top of each page, finding a paragraph is as easy and simple as finding a page. Paragraphs are designated as follows: "§9/14", which indicates §14 of Chapter 9. Figures, tables and exercises are numbered within each paragraph; so, Fig. 9/14/2 is the second drawing in §9/14. Simple references, such as "Ex. 4", indicate a reference to material within a given paragraph. Where a word is formally defined, it is printed in bold.
I would like to express my gratitude to Michael B. Sporn for checking all the exercise answers. I would also like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the Governors of Barnwood House Hospital and to Dr J. W. T. H. Fleming for the extensive support which has made these studies possible. Although the book touches on many issues, they serve only as a means; The purpose of the entire book was to find out what principles should be followed when trying to restore normal activity to a diseased organism, which is amazingly complex when it comes to humans. I believe that new understanding can lead to new and effective methods, because the need for them is great.
W. Ross Ashby
Barnwood House Gloucester
- (systems theory) scientific and methodological concept of studying objects that are systems. It is closely related to the systems approach and is a concretization of its principles and methods. The first version of general systems theory was... ... Wikipedia
CYBERNETICS- (from the Greek kybernetike - the art of control) - the science of self-governing machines, in particular electronically controlled machines (“electronic brain”). Cybernetics became most widespread in the last third of the 20th century. and now… … Philosophical Encyclopedia
Large system- a controlled system, considered as a set of interconnected controlled subsystems, united by a common purpose of operation. Examples of B. s. can serve as: an energy system that includes natural energy sources (rivers,... ...
KOLMOGOROV- Andrey Nikolaevich [b. April 12 (25) 1903] - Sov. mathematician, academician (since 1939), prof. Moscow un that (since 1931). State Laureate USSR Prize (1941). Member of a number of foreign scientific institutions. K.'s research has shown that influence on the development of set theory,... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
MODEL- (French modele, from Latin modulus measure, sample, norm), in logic and methodology of science an analogue (scheme, structure, sign system) defined. a fragment of natural or social reality, a creation of man. culture, conceptually theoretical... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
Cybernetician- Cybernetics (from the Greek kybernetike “the art of control”, from the Greek kybernao “I steer, I control”, from the Greek Κυβερνήτης “helmsman”) the science of the general laws of control processes and information transmission in machines, living organisms and ... ... Wikipedia
Cybernetics- (from other Greek κυβερνητική “the art of management”) the science of the general laws of control processes and information transfer in various systems, be they machines, living organisms or society. Contents 1 Review ... Wikipedia
CYBERNETICS- the science of control, communication and information processing (literally the art of steering). The first person to use this term for management in a general sense was, apparently, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. A. M. Ampere (A. M. Ampere, 1834)… … Mathematical Encyclopedia
Cybernetics Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Cybernetics- I Cybernetics (from the Greek kybernetike the art of control, from kybernáo I steer, I control) the science of control, communication and information processing (See Information). Subject of cybernetics. The main object of research in K. are... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
MODELING- method of studying objects of knowledge on their models; construction and study of models of real-life objects and phenomena (organic and inorganic systems, engineering devices, various processes of physical, chemical, biological... Philosophical Encyclopedia
