cybernetics

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun (biology) the field of science concerned with processes of communication and control (especially the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κυβερνήτης (kubernḗtēs, “steersman”), from κυβερνάω (kubernáō, “to steer, drive, guide, act as a pilot”) (whence English govern). The term is attested since at least 1948 in the book Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener, influenced by the cognate term and doublet governor, the name of an early control device proposed by James Clerk Maxwell in 1868. Note also the 1830s French cybernétique (“the art of governing”). Also doublet of Kubernetes.

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