Cybernetics Cybernetics Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary approach for exploring regulatory systems—their structures, constraints, and possibilities. Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine." In the 21st century, the term is often used in a rather loose way to imply "control of any system using technology." In other words, it is the scientific study of how humans, animals and machines control and communicate with each other. Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analyzed incorporates a closed signaling loop—originally referred to as a "circular causal" relationship—that is, where action by
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1762), Locke's "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" was one of the foundational eighteenth-century texts on educational theory. In Britain, it was considered the standard treatment of the topic for over a century. For this reason, some critics have maintained that "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" vies with the "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" for the title of Locke's most influential work. Some of Locke's contemporaries, such as seventeenth-century German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, believed this as well; Leibniz argued that "Some Thoughts" superseded even the "Essay" in its impact on European society. Locke's "Some Thoughts Concerning Education" was a runaway best-seller. During