"[…] the physiologist is forced to use simplified schemes or models for the description of organic regulation processes. He finds such simplified schemes in regulation technology in a great variety of forms, as if ready made for his use. [...] The state can also be viewed in some of its activities as a regulator of free forces […]" (Hermann Schmidt, "Regelungstechnik - die technische Aufgabe und ihre wissenschaftliche, sozialpolitische und kulturpolitische Auswirkung", Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, Zeitschrift Vol. 85 (4), 1941)
"Given any object, relatively abstracted from its surroundings for study, the behavioristic approach consists in the examination of the output of the object and of the relations of this output to the input. By output is meant any change produced in the surroundings by the object. By input, conversely, is meant any event external to the object that modifies this object in any manner." (Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener & Julian Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose and Teleology", Philosophy of Science 10, 1943)
"In classifying behavior the term teleology was used as synonymous with purpose controlled by feed-back. Teleology has been interpreted in the past to imply purpose and the vague concept of a final cause has been often added. This concept of final causes has led to the opposition of teleology to determinism. […] teleology is not opposed to determinism, but to non-teleology. Both teleological and nonteleological systems are deterministic when the behavior considered belongs to the realm where determinism applies. The concept of teleology shares only one thing with the concept of causality: a time axis. But causality implies a one-way, relatively irreversible functional relationship, whereas teleology is concerned with behavior, not with functional relationships." (Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener & Julian Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose and Technology", Philosophy of Science Vol. 10 (1), 1943)
"Since we consider purposefulness a concept necessary for the understanding of certain modes of behavior we suggest that a teleological study is useful if it avoids problems of causality and concerns itself merely with an investigation of purpose." (Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener & Julian Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose and Technology", Philosophy of Science Vol. 10 (1), 1943)
"Purposeful active behavior may be subdivided into two classes: feed-back (or teleological) and non-feed-back (or non-teleological)." (Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener & Julian Bigelow, "Behavior, Purpose and Technology", Philosophy of Science Vol. 10 (1), 1943)
"Besides electrical engineering theory of the transmission of messages, there is a larger field [cybernetics] which includes not only the study of language but the study of messages as a means of controlling machinery and society, the development of computing machines and other such automata, certain reflections upon psychology and the nervous system, and a tentative new theory of scientific method." (Norbert Wiener, "Cybernetics", 1948)
"Cybernetics is a word invented to define a new field in science. It combines under one heading the study of what in a human context is sometimes loosely described as thinking and in engineering is known as control and communication. In other words, cybernetics attempts to find the common elements in the functioning of automatic machines and of the human nervous system, and to develop a theory which will cover the entire field of control and communication in machines and in living organisms." (Norbert Wiener, "Cybernetics", 1948)
"The concept of teleological mechanisms however it be expressed in many terms, may be viewed as an attempt to escape from these older mechanistic formulations that now appear inadequate, and to provide new and more fruitful conceptions and more effective methodologies for studying self-regulating processes, self-orienting systems and organisms, and self-directing personalities. Thus, the terms feedback, servomechanisms, circular systems, and circular processes may be viewed as different but equivalent expressions of much the same basic conception." (Lawrence K Frank, 1948)
"We have decided to call the entire field of control and communication theory, whether in the machine or in the animal, by the name Cybernetics, which we form from the Greek [...] for steersman. In choosing this term, we wish to recognize that the first significant paper on feedback mechanisms is an article on governors, which was published by Clerk Maxwell in 1868, and that governor is derived from a Latin corruption [...] We also wish to refer to the fact that the steering engines of a ship are indeed one of the earliest and best-developed forms of feedback mechanisms." (Norbert Wiener, "Cybernetics", 1948)
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