Cybernetics Bring Machines To Life

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27999, 20 June 1956, Page 10

Cybernetics Bring Machines To Life

[By Professor GEORGES BOULANGER}

PARIS Cybernetics is the science which is bridging the gap between mechanics and life. Under the leadership of its creator. Norbert Wiener, it is attempting to line up the animal and the machine as regards their ability to act towards pre-determined ends. This may sound surprising. After all, aren’t machines just robots, passive instruments incapable of determining their own behaviour? And isn’t the ability of directing an action towards a pre-determined goal the exclusive prerogative of living matter? Up to a few years ago, scientists believed that this ability of acting with a definite objective in view was the one characteristic which really dis tinguished living organisms from inert matter. But the development over recent years of machines capable of re flexes, and later of machines capable of learning, has shown that this ability is not confined to living organisms. Today entirely automatic calculating machines are being constructed. We have built machines that reason, machines capable of taking decisions and of controlling themselves, machines that can modify their own structure in order to cope with unforeseen circumstances.

# These machines are no longer dependent upon their constructor, and their activities are no longer subjected to a nre-arranged programme. There lies the fundamental difference. Indeed. these machines can acquire a real life of their own and scientists now believe that all phenomena of life can be expressed mechanically The thinking robot may be a Utopian

dream today, but tomorrow it will be a reality. That, to my mind, is the true meaning of the newborn science of cybernetics.

Practically speaking, the object of cybernetics is to develop self-govern-ing machines. Starting with the classic governor which Watt installed on his steam engine, it has led to the development of pilotless aircraft and automatic factories, passing through such spectacular stages as the language-translating machine or the automatic control of cars on arterial highways. Since it sets out to imitate life, cybernetics must also understand the mechanism of life. The pivot of this research is the work of the English neurologist Grey Walter who is studying the behaviour of robot animals—such as the famous electronic tortoise —which he constructs himself. Then there is the attempt by the psychiatrist Ashby to build an artificial brain.

Such developments may have enormous repercussions unon medical science. It is believed, for instance, that certain techniques of cybernetics could be used to explain phenomena hitherto unexplained by natural laws, notably recarding the activity of the brain. The International Cybernetics Congress being organised next June on the initiative of the Province of Namur, in Belgium, may well mark a turning point in this research. Held under the auspices of UNESCO and the Belgian Ministry of Education, it will be divided into four sections dealing with the principles and methods of cybernetics; the co-called “thinking-ma'-hines”; the machines now grouped under the term “automation”; and. finally, the relation between cybernetics and life.

More than 250 participants and representatives from a dozen countries have already accepted to attend this congress and at least 40 original papers will be presented. The meeting has a dual purpose: first, to bring about an extensive interchange of the concepts and ideas which are now developing round the word “cybernetics”; and second, to summarise the present achievements of this new science which already is revolutionising industry and undoubtedly will leave its mark on all fields of human activity.