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Sixty years of cybernetics

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Abstract

Fundamental aspects of cybernetics, such as goals, problems, methods, tools, brief history, and correlation with other sciences, are considered. Cybernetics in its classical interpretation is the science of information management, communication, and processing. As cybernetics developed, this definition was formalized as the science of methods and processes of information acquisition, storage, processing, analysis, and evaluation, which allows it to apply to decision making in complex control systems. These systems include all engineering, biological, administrative, social, ecological, and economical systems. The main thesis that determined the goals, problems, subject matter, and development of cybernetics as a whole up to the present is the similarity in management and communication processes in machines, living organisms, and both animal and human societies. First of all, these are processes of transfer, storage, and processing of information, i.e., various signals, messages, and data. Any signal and any information may be considered independently from its particular content and destination as a certain choice between two or more values having the known probabilities (selective concept of information). It allows us to treat all processes on the basis of a unified measure and statistical apparatus. The idea of the general theory of control and communication, that is, cybernetics, is based on this hypothesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dorodnicyn Computing Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Vavilova 40, Moscow, 119333, Russia

    Yu. I. Zhuravlev & I. B. Gurevich

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  1. Yu. I. Zhuravlev
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  2. I. B. Gurevich
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Correspondence to Yu. I. Zhuravlev.

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Yuii Ivanovich Zhuravlev. Born in Voronezh on January 14, 1935. In 1957, graduated from Moscow State University. Doctor of physics and mathematics since 1965, professor since 1967, and an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1992. Deputy director of the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, chair of the Mathematics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Chair of Moscow State University, and editor-in-chief of Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis. Foreign member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and the European Academy of Sciences. Winner of the Lenin and Lomonosov prizes. Main fields of scientific interest: mathematical logic; control systems theory; the mathematical theory of pattern recognition, image analysis, and forecasting; operations research; and artificial intelligence. Developed such new lines of research as the theory of local optimization algorithms, algorithms of estimate calculation, and the algebraic theory of recognition algorithms.

Igor B. Gurevich (born August 24, 1938) Dr.-Eng. (Diploma Engineer (Automatic Control and Electrical Engineering), 1961, Moscow Power Engineering Institute, Moscow, USSR; Dr. (Theoretical Computer Science/Mathematical Cybernetics), 1975, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, USSR. Head of Department at the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, assistant professor at the Computer Science Faculty, Moscow State University. He has worked from 1960 till now as an engineer and researcher in industry, medicine, and universities and in the Russian Academy of Sciences. Scientific Interests: Image Analysis, Image Understanding, Mathematical Theory of Pattern Recognition, Theoretical Computer Science, Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis Techniques Applications in Medicine, Nondestructive Testing, Process Control, Knowledge Bases, Knowledge Based Systems. Publications: 2 monographs (in coauthorship), 135 papers on Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Theoretical Computer Science and Applications in peer reviewed international and Russian journals, conference and workshop proceedings; 1 patent of the Soviet Union, 4 patents of the Russian Federation. Executive Secretary of “The Russian Federation Association for Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis,” member of the International Association for Pattern Recognition Governing Board (representative from the Russian Federation), IAPR Fellow. He has been the PI of many research and development projects as part of national research (applied and basic research) programs of the Russian Academy of Sciences, of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, of the Soros Foundation, of INT AS. Vice Editor-in-Chief of “Pattern Recognition and Image Analysis,” International Academic Publishing Company “NAUKA/INTERPERIODICA” Pleiades Publishing.

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Zhuravlev, Y.I., Gurevich, I.B. Sixty years of cybernetics. Pattern Recognit. Image Anal. 20, 1–20 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054661810010013

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