Systems Engineering: Cybernetics (Definitions)

"Cybernetics […] combines under one heading the study of what in a human context is sometimes loosely described as thinking and in engineering is known as control and communication. In other words, cybernetics attempts to find the common elements in the functioning of automatic machines and of the human nervous system, and to develop a theory which will cover the entire field of control and communication in machines and in living organisms." (Norbert Wiener, "Cybernetics", 1948)

The 'cybernetics' of Wiener […] is the science of organization of mechanical and electrical components for stability and purposeful actions." (Qian Xuesen, "Engineering Cybernetics", 1954) 

"[Cybernetics is] the art of ensuring the efficacy of action." (Louis Couffignal, 1958)

"Cybernetics is the science of the process of transmission, processing and storage of information." (Sergei Sobolew, Woprosy Psychology, 1958)

"Cybernetics is the general science of communication. But to refer to communication is consciously or otherwise to refer to distinguishable states of information inputs and outputs and /or to information being processed within some relatively isolated system." (Henryk Greniewski, "Cybernetics without Mathematics", 1960)

"Cybernetics is the science or the art of manipulating defensible metaphors; showing how they may be constructed and what can be inferred as a result of their existence." (Gordon Pask, "The Cybernetics of Human Performance and Learning", 1966)

"Cybernetics is concerned with scientific investigation of systemic processes of a highly varied nature, including such phenomena as regulation, information processing, information storage, adaptation, self-organization, self-reproduction, and strategic behavior. Within the general cybernetic approach, the following theoretical fields have developed: systems theory (system), communication theory, game theory, and decision theory." (Fritz B Simon et al, "Language of Family Therapy: A Systemic Vocabulary and Source Book", 1985)

"Cybernetics is the science of effective organization, of control and communication in animals and machines. It is the art of steersmanship, of regulation and stability. The concern here is with function, not construction, in providing regular and reproducible behaviour in the presence of disturbances." (Chris Lucas, "Cybernetics and Stochastic Systems", 1999)

"Cybernetics is the study of systems and processes that interact with themselves and produce themselves from themselves." (Louis Kauffman, 2007)

"Cybernetics is the art of creating equilibrium in a world of possibilities and constraints." (Ernst von Glasersfeld, "Partial Memories: Sketches from an Improbable Life", 2010)

"Cybernetics is the study of systems which can be mapped using loops (or more complicated looping structures) in the network defining the flow of information. Systems of automatic control will of necessity use at least one loop of information flow providing feedback." (Alan Scrivener, "A Curriculum for Cybernetics and Systems Theory", 2012)