Basic Notions – Control

The word control carries a heavy connotation — domination, command, a hand on the throttle. Cybernetics means something quite different by it. Stafford Beer says “control is an attribute of a system,” and that for a system to be “in control” is for it to be “ultra-stable: capable of adapting smoothly to unpredicted change.” In other words, a system in control is not rigid. It is the one that can hold its equilibrium through change — and that, displaced, can find its way back.

So if a system has a controller function, then as long as that controller can handle the forces pressing on the system, the system stays in equilibrium. And if something knocks it out, the controller works to return it to where it was, or to find a new resting state it can hold. That is the controller’s whole purpose: to maintain equilibrium, or, when it’s lost, to go looking for it.

You carry controllers like this without noticing. Step from a hot room into the cold, and a controller in your body holds your internal temperature steady against the swing. Another quietly balances the pressure of your work against the satisfactions — money, meaning — you draw from it, and as long as the two hold even, you stay.

References

[1] Beer, S. (1959). Cybernetics and Management (p. 9).

[2] Beer, S. (1974). Designing Freedom (p. 50).