CYBERNETIC

Tradition
S e v e n T r a d i t i o n s o f
C o m m u n i c a t i o n T h e o r y

GROUP II:

CARBONEL - CUEVAS - VELICARIA

 CYBERNETIC TRADITION

Cybernetics refers to a tradition of

complex systems where the interacting
elements influence one another.

In this tradition communication is seen as

a system of processing information,
feedback and control.
 CYBERNETIC TRADITION

The concept Parts of the It takes in Systems will

system are information ( input) continually
of “system” from the outside monitor, self-
is the core of interdependent
environment regulate and
and this is allows
the cybernetic processes them control their
the system to and creates outputs to remain
tradition. organize itself. outputs. efficient.
CYBERNETIC TRADITION
Theorists of this tradition are most concerned with:

 How does the system

work?

 What would change it?

 How can we improve it?

 Five variations in the Cybernetic Tradition

Basic System Theory Cybernetics

Information Theory General System Theory

Second Order Cybernetics

Five variations in the
Cybernetic Tradition

01
Basic System Theory
• Maintains that systems are structures that
one can study and see how the parts of
the system interact.

• It is also possible to improve the system

by manipulating its inputs.
Five variations in the
Cybernetic Tradition

02
Cybernetics
• This term applies to the general tradition and the variation.

• Popularized by MIT scientist Norbert Weiner in the 1950s

• Communication is not linear but rather it is a cyclic process with feedback loops

• This branch shows us how parts of the system (communication process) are
interdependent and how the feedback loops maintain balance and create change.
Five variations in the
Cybernetic Tradition

03
Information Theory
• Originated with Claude Shannon

• Focuses on the transmission of signals through networks

• Seeks to improve that process

• It tries to counteract noise and facilitate the accurate flow of messages by

quantifying the uncertainty in the messages and calculating the amount of
redundancy
Five variations in the
Cybernetic Tradition

04
General System Theory
• Developed by biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy

• This branch of system theory highlights the commonalities within systems

• It seeks to show us that different fields can be linked if they share the same
system principles.
Five variations in the
Cybernetic Tradition

05
Second Order Cybernetics
• Developed by theorists who determined that it was not possible to objectively
observe a system

• In this variation it is understood that the person observing the system is always
cybernetically engaged with the system that they are observing and therefore
they both affect each other during the process.

• It is also referred to as the cybernetics of knowing because it understands that

the knower and the known cannot be separated.
CYBERNETIC TRADITION

• Cybernetic theory downplays the

differences between human
communication and other kinds of
information processing systems.
CYBERNETIC TRADITION

• Information storage, transmission,

and feedback, network structures,
and self-organizing processes
occur in every sufficiently complex
system.
 CYBERNETIC TRADITION

The anthropologist Gregory

They analyzed
Bateson and a group of relationships as
therapists known as the Palo patterns of interaction
and feedback that tend
Alto Group developed a
to maintain themselves
cybernetic theory of regardless of what the
relationships and family individuals involved
might intend
systems in the 1950s and
1960s.
CYBERNETIC TRADITION

From a cybernetic point of view, family communication

problems are not essentially problems of
what to say (rhetoric),
or the meaning of signs (semiotics),
or lack of authenticity (phenomenology);
instead, they are unwanted patterns of interaction that
can be difficult to change except by disrupting the family
system in some way.
Thank you!