Principia Cybernetica is an international cooperation of scientists in the field of
cybernetics
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
and
systems science
Systems science, also referred to as systems research or simply systems, is a transdisciplinary field that is concerned with understanding simple and complex systems in nature and society, which leads to the advancements of formal, natural, socia ...
, especially known for their website, Principia Cybernetica. They have dedicated their organization to what they call "a computer-supported evolutionary-systemic philosophy, in the context of the transdisciplinary academic fields of Systems Science and Cybernetics".
Organisation
Principia Cybernetica was initiated in 1989 in the USA by
Cliff Joslyn and
Valentin Turchin, and a year later broadened to Europe with
Francis Heylighen from Belgium joining their cooperation.
Major activities of the Principia Cybernetica Project are:
* Principia Cybernetica Web: an online encyclopedia
* Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems; an online dictionary
* Newsletter Principia Cybernetica News
* Conferences and traditional publications
The organization is associated with:
*
American Society for Cybernetics.
* Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group: a transdisciplinary research group at the
Free University of Brussels, Belgium, founded in 2004 and directed by
Francis Heylighen.
* Journal of
Memetics
Memetics is a theory of the evolution of culture based on Darwinian principles with the meme as the unit of culture. The term "meme" was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book '' The Selfish Gene'', to illustrate the principle that h ...
-Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission (JoM-EMIT) is an international peer-refereed scientific journal
* Global Brain Group: for discussion about the emergence of a
global brain.
Principia Cybernetica Web
The Principia Cybernetica Web,
Principia Cybernetica Web
/ref> which went online in 1993, is one of the first complex webs in the world.
It contains content on cybernetics
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
, systems theory
Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...
, complexity
Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to c ...
, and related approaches.
Workshops and symposia
Especially in the 1990s the Principia Cybernetica has organized a series of workshops and international symposia on cybernetic
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
themes.[Principia Cybernetica Meetings](_blank)
2001, retrieved October 2007. On the 1st Principia Cybernetica Workshop in June 1991 in Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
many cyberneticist
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...
s attended like Harry Bronitz, Gordon Pask, J.L. Elohim, Robert Glueck, Ranulph Glanville, Annemie Van Kerkhoven, Don McNeil, Elan Moritz, Cliff Joslyn, A. Comhaire and Valentin Turchin.
See also
* W. Ross Ashby
* Complex adaptive system
A complex adaptive system (CAS) is a system that is ''complex'' in that it is a dynamic network of interactions, but the behavior of the ensemble may not be predictable according to the behavior of the components. It is '' adaptive'' in that the ...
* Evolutionary epistemology
Evolutionary epistemology refers to three distinct topics: (1) the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, (2) a theory that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection, and (3) the study of the historical discovery ...
* Global brain
* Manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions
* Red Queen
* Stuart Umpleby
* Emergence
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole.
Emergence plays a central rol ...
References
Further reading
* Woody Evans (2003),
A Review of the Principia Cybernetica Web
', Mississippi Libraries, 67(1), p.16, Spring 2003.
* Ben Goertzel (2000),
The Principia Cybernetica Project: Placing the Web at the Center of Man’s Quest for Knowledge
', September 2000.
* Koen Van Damme (2007),
'.
* Francis Heylighen (2000).
Foundations and Methodology for an Evolutionary World View: A Review of the Principia Cybernetica Project"
in: ''Foundations of Science'', 5(4), p.457-490.
* Francis Heylighen, C. Joslyn & Valentin Turchin (1991). " tp://ftp.vub.ac.be/pub/projects/Principia_Cybernetica/Texts_General/Short_Intro.txt A Short Introduction to the Principia Cybernetica Project{cbignore, bot=medic". in: ''Journal of Ideas'', 2(1), p.26-29.
* C. Joslyn, Francis Heylighen & V. Turchin (1993). "Synopsys of the Principia Cybernetica Project". in: ''Proc. 13th Int. Congress on Cybernetics'', p. 509-513.
External links
* Principia Cybernetic
Home page
* Principia Cybernetic
Cybernetics
Organizations established in 1989
Systems sciences organizations