Cybernetics—An Old Idea Comes of Age
DO YOU like going to the zoo? There you may chuckle at seeing a mother baboon groom her baby, plucking ticks out of its hair. Or perhaps a visit to an automobile assembly plant is more to your liking. Would you expect to see anything similar there?
Hardly, you may reply. Yet, in modern automobile factories, you may well see mechanical arms picking up and transporting parts and materials for assembly. Indeed, such plants employ the same principles that baboons have been using for ages in grooming one another. The study of such principles is called cybernetics.
This science may be new, but the word is not. Several thousand years ago, Homer wrote of ky·ber·neʹtes when referring to the helmsman of a ship. And Plato later applied the expression to the man at the helm of the ship of state. So, what exactly is cybernetics? The World Book Encyclopedia says that it is “a branch of science that deals with control mechanisms and the transmission of information,” both in living things and in machines. The means for internal control in an animal—its nervous system—is similar to that within modern machinery. The internal system works by giving commands, feeding back information on progress, and controlling by adjustment as necessary.
Let us examine mother baboon at her grooming. We shall see that she has much in common with modern machines. First she locates the tick with her eye. Then her brain orders the hand to extract the insect from the fur. The brain constantly monitors progress, carefully making sure her hand grabs the insect and not a bunch of hair. What if the youngster fidgets while this is going on? No problem, for mother’s brain is equal to the task, issuing new orders to compensate for his jerking. The baboon thus has a very sophisticated built-in system of command, feedback, and control. Cyberneticians study such automatic control systems in living organisms and in machines. But what sort of machines?
Up-to-date automobile production facilities are largely automatic. They employ not just machines but self-regulating machines, sometimes called robots.
Robots are a practical application of cybernetics in that they employ the same principles of command, feedback, and control that are present in mother baboon. These principles enable a robot to regulate its own activity and thus be one move ahead of other mechanical devices. But just how did cybernetics reach the robot stage, thus developing as a field in its own right?
From Pulleys to Robots
Throughout history man has been trying to take some of the drudgery and routine out of life by making machines work for him. Of course, the earliest devices still needed a master to operate and control them, to do the thinking. Thus, the wheel, lever, or pulley multiplied muscle power but required the close attention of a human. Gradually, powered machines were invented, driven by water, wind, or steam. But humans still had to be on hand to measure the output of the device, to adjust and to regulate it. So a system was needed to monitor machine activity. Could machines be made to control themselves, at least in part?
Mother baboon’s brain not only issues instructions to the hand but also compiles a progress report based on data supplied by her eye. Our diligent primate needs no one to tell her where the next insect is and how to remove it. She has a built-in system of command, feedback, and control that makes her self-regulating. A machine that monitors its own activity must likewise have these elements built into its automatic system.
The industrial revolution that began in the late 18th century provided a stimulus for the development of automatic machines. For example, the steam engine was improved by Watt’s invention of a centrifugal governor. By sensing engine speed (feedback) and adjusting a steam inlet valve (control), output of his engine was maintained at a given level (command). The speed of this machine was thus automatically controlled, self-regulating.
But mother baboon can do more than groom her infant; she can feed it and take it for walks as well. Her automatic control system is so adaptable that junior can rely on mom in all situations. Could a machine with such flexibility be designed? It would need a control system that enabled it to accomplish a variety of unrelated tasks. Since the 1950’s the science of cybernetics has been attempting to meet this need. One of the developments that grew out of it is the modern robot.
Robot—An Outgrowth of Cybernetics
The word “robot” comes from a Czech term meaning “forced labor.” In this century, “robot” has come to mean “a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed [for] a variety of tasks.” Many industrial robots are equipped with computers. They are programmed for a number of jobs and then reprogrammed once the work schedule changes. It has been said that up to 80 percent of a robot can be reused once its computer is fed programs updated for a new assignment.
How does the industrial robot function? Cyberneticians employ the same sort of inbuilt control system in robots that we observed in mother baboon, with the elements of command, feedback, and control. To begin with, a working routine is fed into the robot’s memory. Thereafter, whenever the machine is in operation, command signals from its memory instruct it as to what it should do. A sensing instrument in the machine feeds back a report on progress. Within its memory, a comparison of progress with the original command produces a command to begin the next task. Such machines can push, pull, twist, raise, lower, rotate, or even spray-paint, weld, load, stack, and transport.
Automobile manufacturing is one industry, among many, that uses cybernetics and utilizes the robot. This has removed workers from a hostile environment caused by heat, fumes, or noise. One mechanic at an automobile plant reminisced about conditions 30 years ago, saying: “I had to mount gearboxes and ruined my back doing it. That [work] is done by a robby now.”
Supreme Cybernetician
Yet, progress in the field of cybernetics should not blind us to the fact that even the most sophisticated computer-directed robot can do only what it is programmed to do. Both machine and program are of human design. What can we conclude, then, about man’s own nervous system? It is clearly of far, far superior quality.
Norbert Wiener, a pioneer in cybernetics, noted: “No other computing machine approaches the economy of energy of the brain. . . . [Man has] the best developed nervous system” of any living thing on earth. Clearly, man offers a superb example of what a system of command, feedback, and control can do. “Transmission of information within the nervous system is more complex than the largest telephone exchanges,” reports The New Encyclopædia Britannica, adding: “Problem solving by a human brain exceeds by far the capacity of the most powerful computers.”
All credit, then, goes to man’s Designer, Jehovah God, who must rank as the most brilliant cybernetician ever. “In a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made,” wrote David at Psalm 139:14. Each healthy human is equipped at birth with a nervous system enabling him to be master of his own activity. Certain talents are quickly developed. Picking things up and transporting them are literally child’s play. Other skills, such as riding a bicycle or playing a piano, require practice.
The human control system is enormously flexible. It can even be used to give moral guidance. At Ephesians 6:4 the Bible encourages parents to feed upright moral values into their child’s brain, the process being called “mental-regulating.” A plentiful store of moral guidelines can direct the child in decision making and help him monitor his own activity.
The word ky·berʹne·sis is found at 1 Corinthians 12:28. There the term denotes “abilities to direct,” or as Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words puts it, it is said of “those who act as guides” within the congregation. Even the Christian congregation can act as a cybernetic system, with theocratic goals and standards. Each individual member has the opportunity to monitor his own activity based on values laid down in the Bible.
So cybernetics is really as old as creation. Of course, mother baboon does not know that, nor does she care. But as intelligent creatures of God, let us appreciate the wonderful gift of our inbuilt control system. By using it properly, we can use our gifts to the glory of the Supreme Cybernetician, Jehovah God.
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