From: Dan Asimov <dasimov@earthlink.net>
I know, or think I know, Norbert Wiener coined the word cybernetics and wrote a book about it. [...]
Me too.
But [...] the dictionary definition of cybernetics:
<< : the science of communication and control theory that is concerned especially with the comparative study of automatic control systems (as the nervous system and brain and mechanical-electrical communication systems)
The hard results were and still are in control theory. I know Wiener's no slouch, I think what happened was people hoped to get traction by looking at feedback loops, loops controlling the parameters of loops, etc., in hierarchies... but didn't get anywhere. So it is cybernetics itself (not just this conference) that has kooks. For instance people who want to manage economies with feedback systems, without really getting that economies already are multilayered feedback systems attempting to "route around damage" as the saying goes. It's similar to how Complex Systems had some interesting results and then kooks. The funny thing is, hierarchical feedback systems are making a comeback with people like Jeff Hawkins, only it turns out every little piece of knowledge is its own feedback loop, so (assuming they work) you don't get general high-level results, just general infrastructure designs and lots of specific stuff for a system to learn. --Steve