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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.

— W. Ross Ashby An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956)

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More quotes by W. Ross Ashby

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)

Such a system is “self-organizing” in the sense that it changes from “parts separated” to “parts joined.”

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: W. Ross Ashby (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.