Cybernetics Forrester at MIT in the 1950s, is a related field. Cybernetics has been defined in a variety of ways, by a variety of people, from a variety of disciplines. Cybernetician Stuart Umpleby reports some notable definitions: Other notable definitions include: The term "cybernetics" stems from κυβερνήτης ("cybernḗtēs") "steersman, governor, pilot, or rudder". As with the ancient Greek pilot, independence of thought is important in cybernetics. French physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère first coined the word "cybernetique" in his 1834 essay "Essai sur la philosophie des sciences" to describe the science of civil government. The term was borrowed by Norbert Wiener,
Norbert Wiener Oswald Veblen invited Wiener to work on ballistics at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Living and working with other mathematicians strengthened his interest in mathematics. However, Wiener was still eager to serve in uniform, and decided to make one more attempt to enlist, this time as a common soldier. Wiener wrote in a letter to his parents, "I should consider myself a pretty cheap kind of a swine if I were willing to be an officer but unwilling to be a soldier." This time the army accepted Wiener into its ranks and assigned him, by coincidence, to a unit