¶ Cybernetics
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Index Entry
Cybernetics:
"Cybernetics, the Greek name for the steering of a boat was first employed by Norbert Wiener to identify the human process of gaining and employing information. When the rudder of a ship is angled to one side or the other of the ship’s keel line, the ship’s hull begins to rotate around its pivot or deepest keel point. Since ships have great weight–usually in ton magnitudes–frequently in thousands of ton magnitudes-- the momentum of that tonnage’s pivoting tends to keep rotating the ship beyond the helmsman’s intention. He therefore has to ‘meet’ that ship’s altering of its course which he does by putting the rudder over into the opposite angular direction, which always produces a momentum contradiction and a resultant course alteration to the opposite side of the desired ship’s course. It is impossible to altogether eliminate the ship’s course re-alterations. It is possible only to reduce the degree of angular errors by ever more sensitive, frequent, and gentle corrections.
"Through successively sensed visual information, the ship’s helmsman discovers that he has oversteered first on one side and then on the other side of the compass course he is desirous of maintaining in order to reach his unseeable, faraway destination.
¶ Citations
- RBF Ltr. to Bro. Jos. Chuala, pp.3-4; 7 Nov’75
