Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment
Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment

Author: Zihao Zhang

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-07-24

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1040101798

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Grounded in contemporary landscape architecture theory and practice, Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment blends examples from art, design, and engineering with concepts from cybernetics and posthumanism, offering a transdisciplinary examination of the ramifications of cybernetics on the constructed environment. Cybernetics, or the study of communication and control in animals and machines, has grown increasingly relevant nearly 80 years after its inception. Cyber-physical systems, sensing networks, and spatial computing—algorithms and intelligent machines—create endless feedback loops with human and non-human actors, co-producing a cybernetic environment. Yet, when an ecosystem is meticulously managed by intelligent machines, can we still call it wild nature? Posthumanism ideas, such as new materialism, actor-network theory, and object-oriented ontology, have become increasingly popular among design disciplines, including landscape architecture, and may have provided transformative frameworks to understand this entangled reality. However, design still entails a sense of intentionality and an urge to control. How do we, then, address the tension between the designer’s intentionality and the co-produced reality of more-than-human agents in the cybernetic environment? Is posthumanism enough to develop a framework to think beyond our all-too-human ways of thinking? For researchers, scholars, practitioners, and students in environmental design and engineering disciplines, this book maps out a paradigm of environmentalism and ecological design rooted in non-communication and uncontrollability, and puts a speculative turn on cybernetics. Chapters 8 and 9 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Cybernetic Architectures
Cybernetic Architectures

Author: Camilo Andrés Cifuentes Quin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-07-29

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 1000421864

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For the past 50 years, the advancements of technology have equipped architects with unique tools that have enabled the development of new computer-mediated design methods, fabrication techniques, and architectural expressions. Simultaneously, in contemporary architecture new frameworks emerged that have radically redefined the traditional conceptions of design, of the built environment, and of the role of architects. Cybernetic Architectures argues that such frameworks have been constructed in direct reference to cybernetic thinking, a thought model that emerged concurrently with the origins of informatics and that embodies the main assumptions, values, and ideals underlying the development of computer science. The book explains how the evolution of the computational perspective in architecture has been parallel to the construction of design issues in reference to the central ideas fostered by the cybernetic model. It unpacks and explains this crucial relationship, in the work of digital architects, between the use of information technology in design and the conception of architectural problems around an informational ontology. This book will appeal to architecture students and scholars interested in understanding the recent transformations in the architectural landscape related to the advent of computer-based design paradigms.

Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment
Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment

Author: Zihao Zhang (Professor of landscape architecture)

Publisher:

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781003320852

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"Grounded in contemporary landscape architecture theory and practice, Cybernetics and the Constructed Environment blends examples from art, design, and engineering with concepts from cybernetics and posthumanism, offering a transdisciplinary examination of the ramifications of cybernetics on the constructed environment. Cybernetics, or the study of communication and control in animals and machines, has grown increasingly relevant nearly 80 years after its inception. Cyber-physical systems, sensing networks, and spatial computing-algorithms and intelligent machines create endless feedback loops with human and non-humean actors, co-producing a cybernetic environment. Yet, when an ecosystem is meticulously managed by intelligent machines, can we still call it wild nature? Posthumanism ideas, such as new materialism, actor-network theory, and object-oriented ontology, have become increasingly popular among design disciplines, including landscape architecture, and may have provided transformative frameworks to understand this entangled reality. However, design still entails a sense of intentionality and an urge to control. How do we, then, address the tension between the designer's intentionality and the co-produced reality of more-than-human agents in the cybernetic environment? Is posthumanism enough to develop a framework to think beyond our all-too-human ways of thinking?"--

Infrastructure for the Built Environment: Global Procurement Strategies
Infrastructure for the Built Environment: Global Procurement Strategies

Author: Rodney Howes

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-08-14

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1136395415

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Throughout the world there is a growing demand for high quality public services to support socio-economic development. Infrastructure is central to improving the level of public services and the quality of the built environment. But in key areas such as transport, energy, water, healthcare, education and communications, public resources are not sufficient to keep pace with this demand. As the public sector struggles to keep up, the private sector is increasingly involved in the procurement of economic and social infrastructure. Until now procurement strategies have often concentrated on the mechanisms and the ‘bricks and mortar’ without a thorough analysis of the processes and their implications for services. The result is that all too often infrastructure projects are implemented in an ad hoc and fragmented way. In this ground-breaking book, Rodney Howes and Herbert Robinson provide a holistic approach to infrastructure provision that facilitates infrastructure delivery aimed at continuously improving the level and quality of services. Critical issues of policy and strategy, implementation, and operational aspects are examined within the context of sustainability. By emphasising the importance of procuring infrastructure within an overall national or regional development policy and strategy, the authors have demonstrated the importance of linking investment and resource decisions to local social, economic and environmental needs. With each chapter carefully written to reflect part of the infrastructure delivery chain and illustrated with practical examples and case studies from around the world, this book offers a new blueprint for infrastructure investment and resource management.

A Transdisciplinary Introduction to the World of Cybernetics
A Transdisciplinary Introduction to the World of Cybernetics

Author: E. W. Udo Küppers

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-11-25

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 3658421177

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This introduction to the world of cybernetics provides the basics and discusses the most important thought leaders, models as well as theories. Practical examples from the fields of biology, ecology, technology, society, and politics are used to illustrate the theoretical material. Questions at the end of the chapters stimulate reflection, and the author does not owe the answers. A central theme in all cybernetic considerations and a guiding theme of the book are information exchange and communication.

Designing Intelligent Construction Projects
Designing Intelligent Construction Projects

Author: Michael Frahm

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2022-08-15

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 111969082X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Designing Intelligent Construction Projects Explore the potential impact of management cybernetics, lean methodologies, and digitalization on the construction sector As a heavily asset-driven industry, construction is at the crossroads of a transformation. Digitalization has already begun and is acting as a beacon. Intelligently designed project organizations and systems must follow to make construction projects fit for the future. In Designing Intelligent Construction Projects, a distinguished project manager and engineer and a lean and integrated management system manager deliver a comprehensive exploration of the fundamentals of management cybernetics, lean management in general and lean construction in particular, and construction-oriented digital tools. In the book, the authors describe how these disciplines can be combined to successfully transform construction projects. Preliminary discussions of management cybernetics and lean management are followed by specific discussions of how these topics can be adapted to the construction industry. The book connects the principles of management cybernetics and digitalization, accessibly describing the potential impact of digitalization on construction projects. Readers will also find: Illuminating case study material that highlights how change management methodologies, game theory, and collaborative contractual design can deliver results Strategies for achieving lean, viable, and digitally oriented construction leadership fit for the modern market Rigorous discussions of the current and potential future impact of digitization on construction firms Perfect for built environment professionals and practitioners, Designing Intelligent Construction Projects will also earn a place in the libraries of postgraduate and advanced undergraduate students of civil engineering, architecture, and project management with an interest in construction management.

Systems Research in Health Care, Biocybernetics and Ecology
Systems Research in Health Care, Biocybernetics and Ecology

Author: G.E. Lasker

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-10-22

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 1483190056

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Applied Systems and Cybernetics, Volume IV: Systems Research in Health Care, Biocybernetics and Ecology documents the proceedings of the International Congress on Applied Systems Research and Cybernetics. This volume compiles papers that present several concepts of health care and reflect thinking in this field. This book introduces various health care systems and models, and then tackles some issues on managing the long-term health care facility. A special information system for public health is also described in this volume. This text will be invaluable to those interested in systems research and its applications to a variety of fields, including health care.

The Cybernetics Moment
The Cybernetics Moment

Author: Ronald R. Kline

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 1421416727

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How did cybernetics and information theory arise, and how did they come to dominate fields as diverse as engineering, biology, and the social sciences? Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Cybernetics—the science of communication and control as it applies to machines and to humans—originates from efforts during World War II to build automatic antiaircraft systems. Following the war, this science extended beyond military needs to examine all systems that rely on information and feedback, from the level of the cell to that of society. In The Cybernetics Moment, Ronald R. Kline, a senior historian of technology, examines the intellectual and cultural history of cybernetics and information theory, whose language of “information,” “feedback,” and “control” transformed the idiom of the sciences, hastened the development of information technologies, and laid the conceptual foundation for what we now call the Information Age. Kline argues that, for about twenty years after 1950, the growth of cybernetics and information theory and ever-more-powerful computers produced a utopian information narrative—an enthusiasm for information science that influenced natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, humanists, policymakers, public intellectuals, and journalists, all of whom struggled to come to grips with new relationships between humans and intelligent machines. Kline traces the relationship between the invention of computers and communication systems and the rise, decline, and transformation of cybernetics by analyzing the lives and work of such notables as Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon, Warren McCulloch, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, and Herbert Simon. Ultimately, he reveals the crucial role played by the cybernetics moment—when cybernetics and information theory were seen as universal sciences—in setting the stage for our current preoccupation with information technologies.

Cybernetics: state of the art
Cybernetics: state of the art

Author: Werner, Liss C.

Publisher: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin

Published: 2017-10-17

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 3798329532

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART is the first volume of the book series CON-VERSATIONS. Driven by cybernetic thinking, it engages with pressing questions for architecture, urban planning, design and automated infrastructure; in an age of increasing connectivity, AI and robotization and an evolutionary state of the Anthropocene - perpetuating angst-ridden anxiety as well as excitement and joy of a future, that we will be able to predict with less and less certainty. The book, with a foreword by Omar Khan, discusses cybernetic principles and devices developed in the late 20th century – mainly developed by Ross Ashby and Gordon Pask (second-order cybernetics), to learn from for a future of mutual relationship and conversation between man and machine. The anthology reviews and previews cybernetics as design strategy in computational architecture, urban design and socio-ecological habitats - natural and artificial. It weaves together cybernetic-architectural theories with applications and case studies ranging from regional planning to the smart home. Nine chapters written by an international group of authors from four academic generations are structured into two complimenting parts. While ‘A Concept and a Shape’ focuses on the history and theory of cybernetics, its temporary disappearance and future impact (Raúl Espejo, Michael Hohl, Paul Pangaro, Liss C. Werner), ‘System 5’ – relating to Stafford Beer’s project ‘Cybersyn’ - discusses applications, the role of the individual and human feedback; also with a strong theoretical underpinning (Raoul Bunschoten, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Timothy Jachna, Arun Jain, Kristian Kloeckl). CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART invites the reader to enjoy a glimpse into the past to enjoy and discuss a cybernetic future. CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART mit einem Vorwort von Omar Khan ist die erste Buchausgabe der Serie CON-VERSATIONS. Auf kybernetisches Denken und Schaffen basierend, diskutiert CON-VERSATIONS Fragen zu Architektur, Stadtplanung, Gestaltungsstrategien und automatisierter Infrastruktur in einer evolutionär zunehmenden Vernetzung durch künstliche Intelligenz, Robotisierung; im Zeitalter der Anthropozän, in einem Zustand der sich verewigenden angstbeherrschten Unruhe - wie auch einer besonderen Lust auf eine Zukunft, die wir mit immer weniger Sicherheit voraussagen können. Das Konzept ‚Kybernetik zweiter Ordnung’ des späten 20igsten Jahrhunderts, u.a. entwickelt von Ross Ashby und Gordon Pask, begründet das Buch. Es genießt einen Rückblick und eine Vorschau in eine kybernetische Zukunft der gemeinsamen kausalen Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Maschine. Die Autoren schlagen Kybernetik als Entwurfsstrategie für computer-generierte/-gestützte Architektur, Stadtplanung und natürlich und künstliche sozio-ökologische Lebensumwelten vor. Das Buch kombiniert kybernetisch-architektonische Theorie mit Fallstudien reichend von Regionalplanung zu ‚Smart Home’. Neun Kapitel, geschrieben von einer internationalen Autorenschaft aus vier akademischen Generationen, sind in zwei sich ergänzende Buchteile strukturiert. ‘A Concept and a Shape’, mit Kapiteln von Raúl Espejo, Michael Hohl, Paul Pangaro, Liss C. Werner, diskutiert Geschichte und Wissenschaft der Kybernetik sowie ihr temporäres Verschwinden und Einfluss auf die Zukunft. ‚System 5’ (in Anlehnung an Stafford Beer’s Projekt ‚Cybersyn’) mit Kapiteln von Raoul Bunschoten, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Timothy Jachna, Arun Jain, Kristian Kloeckl, beschreibt kybernetische Praxis, die Rolle des Individuums und ‚Human Feedback’ - ebenfalls mit einem starken theoretischen Fundament. CYBERNETICS: STATE OF THE ART lädt den Leser ein, einen aufschlussreichen Blick in die Vergangenheit zu werfen, um eine kybernetische Zukunft zu genießen und zu diskutieren.

Smart Electromechanical Systems
Smart Electromechanical Systems

Author: Andrey E. Gorodetskiy

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-29

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 331927547X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This carefully edited book introduces the latest achievements of the scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of theory and practice of Smart Electromechanical Systems (SEMS). The book also focuses on methods of designing and modeling of SEMS based on the principles of adaptability, intelligence, biomorphism of parallel kinematics and parallelism in information processing and control computation. The book chapters are dedicated to the following points of interest: - methods of design of SEMS modules and intelligent robots based on them; - synthesis of neural systems of automatic control over SEMS modules; - mathematical and computer modeling of SEMS modules and Cyber Physical Systems based on them; - vitality control and reliability analysis based on logic-and-probabilistic and logic-and-linguistic forecasting; - methods of optimization of SEMS control systems based on mathematical programming methods in ordinal scale and generalized mathematical programming; - information-measuring software of SEMS modules and CPS based on them. This book is intended for students, scientists and engineers specializing in the field of SEMS and robotics, and includes many scientific domains such as kinematics, dynamics, control theory.