12 quotes
Further, as every law of nature implies the existence of an invariant, it follows that every law of nature is a constraint.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
Cybernetics treats not things but ways of behaving.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
The concept of "variety" [is] inseparable from that of "information."
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
When a constraint exists advantage can usually be taken of it.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
By a state of a system is meant any well-defined condition or property that can be recognised if it occurs again. Every system will naturally have many possible states.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
All the changes that may occur with time are naturally included, for when plants grow and planets age and machines move some change from one state to another is implicit.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
The most basic facts in biology are that this earth is now two thousand million years old, and that the biologist studies mostly that which exists today.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
The fundamental questions in regulation and control can be answered only when we are able to consider the broader set of what it might do, when “might” is given some exact specification.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
[Constraint] is a relation between two sets, and occurs when the variety that exists under one condition is less than the variety that exists under another.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
Throughout, we shall be exemplifying the thesis of D. M. MacKay: that quantity of information, as measured here, always corresponds to some quantity, i.e. intensity, of selection, either actual or imaginable
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
As shorthand, when the phenomena are suitably simple, words such as equilibrium and stability are of great value and convenience. Nevertheless, it should be always borne in mind that they are mere shorthand, and that the phenomena will not always have the simplicity that these words presuppose.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)
Variety can destroy variety.
An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)