British cybernetics
Joe E. Dewhurst
September 13, 2018 DOI: 10.4324/9781315643670-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that British cyberneticists Grey Walter and Ross Ashby combined computational principles with embodied models, offering a potential route to resolving tensions between embodied and computational approaches to mind. Highlights homeostasis as central to Ashby's work and traces its influence on second-order cybernetics and enactivism, while contrasting Turing's computational work with Walter's and Ashby's embodied contributions. |
Abstract
This chapter explores the role of embodiment in British cybernetics, specifically in the works of Grey Walter and Ross Ashby, both of whom have had a distinctive influence on later research in embodied cognition. It considers the relationship between Alan Turing and the British cyberneticists, and contrast Turing&s;s work on computation with the contributions of Walter and Ashby. The chapter suggests that the work of the British cyberneticists, which combined computational principles with embodied models, offers a potential route to resolving some of these tensions between embodied and computational approaches to the mind. It overviews the cybernetics movement, highlighting the relationship between American and British cybernetics. The chapter explores Alan Turing&s;s engagement with the Ratio Club, and considers themes of embodiment in Turing&s;s own work on computation and artificial. It discusses the centrality of homeostasis in William Ross Ashby&s;s work on cybernetics, and the subsequent influence that it has had on second-order cybernetics and enactivism.