WHITHER CYBERNETICS— PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS Available to Purchase

The object of research of cybernetics is represented in the concrete field of modelling processes and systems of control and information in economics; it is described in graphic and algorithmic structures. Essential theoretical results are the hitherto unknown possibilities of formalization and simulation of structure, function and behavior of large scale systems to obtain a more exact knowledge of nature and society. Substantial practical results involve new methods of modelling, optimization and automation of processes of management and organization to increase productivity and efficiency in technology and economics. Three future tendencies are visible: To intensify the integration of cybernetic thinking in the special scientific disciplines, to increase the practical use of cybernetic models as an instrument of rationalization and to complete the theory, the models and the methodology of cybernetics. These tendencies are stressed in this paper.