Elements of a cybernetic epistemology: preprogrammed adaptive systems
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate different cybernetic structures of simple adaptive systems and their cognitive and behavioral options.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a functional approach, two basic forms of adaptive systems are constructed, which process data on one level respectively two hierarchical levels. Based on that complex combinations of such one‐level and hierarchical structures are investigated.
Findings
It is shown how different cybernetic structures enable simple forms of adaptive behavior. A basic blueprint for the controller structure of animal species is derived from them, with a simple “brain” and a unit for “motion control” as subsystems. Four paths of evolutionary growth are identified that allow a widely independent development of these subsystems.
Practical implications
The paper provides a typology of simple adaptive systems and discusses the forms of behavior they can develop with preprogrammed – i.e. evolutionary given or technically programmed – decision‐rules. It discusses the requirements that these decision‐rules can form models enabling adaptive behavior. It is suggested that these requirements hold for the models of more complex adaptive systems, too.
Originality/value
This paper is the first in a series of three on a cybernetic theory distinguishing systems able of preprogrammed adaptation, system‐specific adaptation, and learning.
Keywords
Citation
Nechansky, H. (2010), "Elements of a cybernetic epistemology: preprogrammed adaptive systems", Kybernetes, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 55-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684921011021273
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited