cybernetics

American  

[sahy-ber-net-iks] / ˌsaɪ bərˈnɛt ɪks /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. the study of automatic control and communication functions in both living organisms and mechanical and electronic systems, involving the application of statistical mechanics to feedback.

   During WW II, cybernetics was used to develop radar-controlled antiaircraft guns; today the field is working on prosthetic arms and legs linked directly to the human nervous system.

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cybernetics British  

/ ˌsaɪbəˈnɛtɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) the branch of science concerned with control systems in electronic and mechanical devices and the extent to which useful comparisons can be made between man-made and biological systems See also feedback

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cybernetics Scientific  

/ sī′bər-nĕt′ĭks /

1. The scientific study of communication and control processes in biological, mechanical, and electronic systems. Research in cybernetics often involves the comparison of these processes in biological and artificial systems.

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cybernetics Cultural  

1. The general study of control and communication systems in living organisms and machines, especially the mathematical analysis of the flow of information. The term cybernetics was coined by Norbert Wiener, an American mathematician of the twentieth century.

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Other Word Forms

• cybernetic
  adjective
• cybernetical
  adjective
• cybernetician
  noun
• cyberneticist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of cybernetics

From Greek kybernḗtēs “helmsman, steersman” ( kybernē-, stem of kybernân “to steer” + -tēs agent suffix) + -ics; term introduced by Norbert Wiener in 1948

Explanation

Cybernetics is the study of communication and control systems in living things and machines. A scientist specializing in cybernetics might study human-robot interaction. The term cybernetics was coined in the 1940s by scientist Norbert Wiener, and he defined it as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine." The word has come to be used in slightly different ways since then, including the study of robots, cyborgs, and prosthetics. The popular technological prefix cyber- actually came after the word cybernetics, which is rooted in the Greek kybernetes, "steersman, guide or governor."

Example Sentences

Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick is equally interested in studying augmentations, going one step further than most.

From BBC • Jan. 2, 2026

Cybernetics is basically information theory or the mathematics of information applied in contexts of control.

From Salon • Apr. 26, 2025

He joined the Institute for Biological Cybernetics as a director in 1996 and for nearly 2 decades worked primarily with macaques, implanting electrodes in their brains.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 27, 2020

After getting his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Koch had hoped to take up a postdoc role in Poggio’s new laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

From Nature • Oct. 15, 2019

Cybernetics, biogenetics, computers, and research in artificial intelligence and artificial life, as well as political, social, aesthetic, or religious concepts are examples of domains where such sign systems have been devised.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai