Ross Ashby's general theory of adaptive systems

In the 1950s and 1960s Ross Ashby created a general theory of adaptive systems. His work is well known among cyberneticians and systems scientists, but not in other fields. This is somewhat surprising, because his theories are more general versions of the theories in many fields. The philosophy of science claims that more general theories are preferred because a small number of propositions can explain many phenomena. Why, then, are Ashby's theories not widely known and praised? Do scientists really strive for more general, parsimonious theories? This paper reviews the content of Ashby's theories, discusses what they reveal about how scientists work, and suggests what their role might be in the academic community in the future.

[1]  Stuart A. Umpleby.  What I learned from Heinz von Foerster about the construction of science , 2005 .

[2]  Alex M. Andrew,et al.  An Unfinished Revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory – BCL 1958‐1976 , 2008 .

[3]  Sang Joon Kim,et al.  A Mathematical Theory of Communication , 2006 .

[4]  H. Von Foerster,et al.  On Self-Organizing Systems and Their Environments , 2003 .

[5]  W. Ross Ashby,et al.  Principles of the Self-Organizing System , 1991 .

[6]  David Berlinski.  On systems analysis: An essay concerning the limitations of some mathematical methods in the social, political, and biological sciences , 1976 .

[7]  C. Argyris.  Reasoning, learning, and action : individual and organizational , 1982 .

[8]  W. Ashby,et al.  Design for a brain; the origin of adaptive behavior , 2011 .

[9]  W. Ashby,et al.  Every Good Regulator of a System Must Be a Model of That System , 1970 .

[10]  Stuart A. Umpleby,et al.  Strategies for regulating the global economy , 1989 .

[11]  Peter Asaro,et al.  Heinz von Foerster and the Bio-Computing Movements of the 1960s , 2007 .

[12]  O. ZAHN,et al.  Dynamics of Growth in a Finite World , 2009 .

[13]  W. Ashby,et al.  Design for a brain: The origin of adaptive behaviour (2nd ed. rev.). , 1960 .

[14]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[15]  Viktor Mikhaĭlovich Glushkov,et al.  An Introduction to Cybernetics , 1957, The Mathematical Gazette.

[16]  M. Mitchell Waldrop,et al.  Complexity : the emerging science and the edge of order and chaos , 1992 .

[17]  Władysław Krajewski,et al.  Correspondence principle and growth of science , 1977 .

[18]  H. Foerster.  The Cybernetics of Cybernetics , 1974 .