Editing Cybernetics (section)

== <span style="color: #FFFFFF;">Understanding</span> ==
Cybernetics is understood through '''Purpose''' and '''Feedback'''.

'''1. The Goal-Seeking Machine''':
A rock rolling down a hill is just "falling." A cruise missile flying toward a target is "Cybernetic."
* It has a '''Goal'''.
* It has a '''Sensor''' (to see where it is).
* It has an '''Effector''' (to change its direction).
* It has '''Feedback''' (to compare its current path to its goal).

'''2. The First-Order vs. Second-Order''':
* '''First-Order (Mechanical)''': A thermostat. It doesn't know "why" it wants 70 degrees, it just follows a rule.
* '''Second-Order (Biological/Social)''': A human being. We can change our own goals. We "reflect" on the system. If we are studying a family, we (the therapist) become part of that family's feedback loop.

'''3. Information as 'Order'''':
Cybernetics treats information as the opposite of '''Entropy'''.
* To keep a garden from becoming a mess, you need to "Input" information (weeding, pruning).
* In a company, "Information" is what coordinates the different workers to act as a single unit instead of a chaotic mob.

'''Ashby's Law (The Law of Requisite Variety)''': This is the most famous law of cybernetics: "Only variety can absorb variety." This means that to control a complex system (like a national economy), your "Controller" (the government) must be at least as complex as the system it is trying to control. If the controller is too simple, the system will become chaotic.
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