TY - GEN
T1 - Wiener's refiguring of a cybernetic design theor
AU - Fischer, Thomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 IEEE.
PY - 2014
Y1 - 2014
N2 - An increasing number of practitioners, researchers and educators in the design field find value in describing design processes in cybernetic terms, while cyberneticians have come to recognize design as a central cybernetic theme. Design and cybernetics have in common that their modes of operation can be characterized as kinds of 'forward-looking search', which transcend the description-focused concerns of natural science. Based on a review of some of Wiener's writings - in particular an abandoned reflection on the process of invention - this paper argues that Wiener was not only one of the inventors of cyber-netics, but also an early cybernetician of invention (i.e. design). Developing analogies between the causal principles observed in automatic anti-aircraft guns, the formation of cybernetics as an academic discipline, and the practices of cybernetics and design, this paper argues that Wiener not only operated between what is (scientifically describable) and what ought to be (designed), but that he also reflected theoretically on himself doing so, thereby enacting several concepts of today's cybernetic design theory. A selection of these concepts is listed and discussed.
AB - An increasing number of practitioners, researchers and educators in the design field find value in describing design processes in cybernetic terms, while cyberneticians have come to recognize design as a central cybernetic theme. Design and cybernetics have in common that their modes of operation can be characterized as kinds of 'forward-looking search', which transcend the description-focused concerns of natural science. Based on a review of some of Wiener's writings - in particular an abandoned reflection on the process of invention - this paper argues that Wiener was not only one of the inventors of cyber-netics, but also an early cybernetician of invention (i.e. design). Developing analogies between the causal principles observed in automatic anti-aircraft guns, the formation of cybernetics as an academic discipline, and the practices of cybernetics and design, this paper argues that Wiener not only operated between what is (scientifically describable) and what ought to be (designed), but that he also reflected theoretically on himself doing so, thereby enacting several concepts of today's cybernetic design theory. A selection of these concepts is listed and discussed.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84908632222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/NORBERT.2014.6893913
DO - 10.1109/NORBERT.2014.6893913
M3 - Conference Proceeding
AN - SCOPUS:84908632222
T3 - 2014 IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century: Driving Technology's Future, 21CW 2014 - Incorporating the Proceedings of the 2014 North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society Conference, NAFIPS 2014, Conference Proceedings
BT - 2014 IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century
A2 - Gibbs, Martin
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2014 IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century, 21CW 2014
Y2 - 24 June 2014 through 26 June 2014
ER -