Information Technology and Cybernetics: Concepts and Impacts

Information, Communication, and Data

Defining Key Terms

From a scientific perspective, reducing uncertainty is linked to novelty and utility. Information increases with societal complexity, impacting everyday decisions.

1. Data: The annotation of an event or occurrence. Meaningful information arises from datasets.
2. Information: A dataset with meaning that reduces uncertainty or increases knowledge. It provides context and facilitates decision-making.
3. Communication: The transmission of information, requiring reception and understanding by the recipient. It establishes common ground.

Redundancy, Entropy, and Synergy

Redundancy involves message repetition to ensure reception, overcoming noise and distortion.

Entropy, derived from the 2nd law of thermodynamics, describes energy loss in isolated systems, leading to degradation. Negative entropy (negentropy) counteracts this disintegration. Systems require energy and information replenishment for survival.

Synergy occurs when two or more entities, acting together, produce an effect greater than the sum of individual effects—a multiplier effect.

Computing and Automation in Cybernetics

Cybernetics and Computing

Computing technology, a part of cybernetics, studies relationships between things and their characteristics, using information carriers.

Automation, a synthesis of ultra-mechanization, involves automated systems. In cybernetics, automata are devices capable of receiving information about the external environment and producing actions.

Automation spans three sectors:

• Chain integration of various operations, such as in manufacturing.
• Use of feedback devices for self-correction.
• Computer use for data accumulation and analysis.

Impact of Information Technology (IT)

Information technology, a primary product of cybernetics, significantly impacts lifestyles and organizations:

Understanding Space

Buildings and offices have shrunk. Data processing centers are minimized and decentralized through integrated microcomputer networks. Virtual enterprises, connected electronically, reduce overhead. Portability and virtual reality have become the new spatial dimension through IT.