20/12/2021
Feedback to Nature
Cybernetics and artificial intelligence: a holistic vision of nature, mind, and machine
The term feedback originated in the world of regulatory mechanisms. At first, it described only the action of “returning to an earlier position” within a mechanical process.
By the 1950s, feedback acquired a more precise definition, “circularity of action,” still limited to mechanisms. Awareness of feedback to control machines and social processes has an exceptional value for the viability of humankind.
Cyberneticians, such as Alan Turing, W. Grey Walter, and W. Ross Ashby, drew heavily on these ideas to understand and model the brain.
The modern world of the 21st century is somewhat a consequence of the cybernetic revolution. Many processes are now driven by artificial intelligence.
In 1972, another cybernetician Stafford Beer wrote a book, “Brain of the firm,” where he suggested the Viable System Model or VSM. Explaining the patterns of viable systems, Beer refers to Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.
Now imagine a program that embraces all of the above. The Helius’ structure and organization are based on a holistic vision of control, the Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, and the Beer’s Viable System Model in mind.