Cybernetics

In 1947, the North American mathematician Nobert Wiener, chose the word in his book “Cybernetics.” He chose it to give a name not to an existing science, but to a future science project that would be responsible for studying the handling and operation of the sophisticated electronic systems that would arise from the second industrial revolution – the electronic revolution – and its fascinating world of informatics, computers, microprocessors and robots.

The North American mathematician Howard Aiken has been attributed with the invention of the computer. In 1943, he built the first thinking machine, a gigantic device of 15 meters in length by 2.5 meters in height. It was a true electronic dinosaur made of 750,000 pieces connected by 300 kilometers of cables and controlled by 3,300 electromechanical switches, built to perform the four basic arithmetical operations in several seconds: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

That moment commenced an astonishing process of the miniaturization of electronic technology. In cybernetics, there are two distinct elements: hardware, which is the physical aspect of the system, the “iron assemblage” that it is made of, and software, which establishes the logical and intangible links among the different parts of the computer.

Cybernetics proposes to replace man’s intellectual power with sophisticated machines that “think” for him. This is the same way that the first industrial revolution of the 19th century supplanted his muscular and physical strength with large machinery: the steam locomotive, the ship, industrial motors and other mechanical devices. The development of computers, from the first to the fifth generation, has revolutionized production systems. The invention of the transistor expedited this revolution. Capable of making decisions, reasoning, learning from their own experiences, working with natural language, understanding written and spoken words, translating languages, utilizing artificial intelligence, fifth-generation software programs are destined to change the world.

The extraordinary effort of the United States and Japan in the context of the intense competition between the two great cybernetic powers has given rise to fifth-generation computers. They are built to store the highest volume of information, to be processed at the highest speed, in the smallest size possible. In the communications world, informatics has created a gigantic “electronic web” of computers connected around the planet with informational purposes. The Internet has become the largest encyclopedia of all time, with more than 800 million pages waiting to be opened.

This content was originally published by the daily El Comercio at the following address: http://www.elcomercio.com/rodrigo_borja/Cibernetica-Rodrigo_Borja_0_1106889314.html.

If you are thinking of using it, please cite the source and leave a link to the original page from where you have taken this content. ElComercio.com