Cybernetic: How Self-Regulating Systems Shape AI, Medicine, and Robotics

The simplest way to describe cybernetics is the regulation of a system to achieve its target in the most efficient way possible. It accomplishes this function through an intricate system of feedback mechanisms. Ideally, the system should identify which actions need monitoring, which behavior to adjust, and how to compare actions with references and adjust them accordingly.

Cybernetics may have the longest career trajectory on the entire roster of modern technologies: the earliest example of its use can be dated back to the 1700s, and we’re just scratching the surface of its potential. To understand the intention behind the technology, and the direction it’s headed in, we need to take a look at the drawing board.

The Origins of Cybernetics

Like many of our computing advancements, we use the human brain as the ideal cybernetic system. Try as we might, we still haven’t created a computer with as much computing ability as the human neural network. Human beings have been developing the field of cybernetics for nearly a century, but the basic principles have been in use for much longer.

The basis for a self-correcting mechanism has been the goal of technology since primitive times. As far back as 300 B.C., we see water clocks and self-filling oil lamps that utilize floating devices. They alter their function depending on the level of liquid. Stripped down to its bare essentials, the thermostat and the steam engine are the earliest examples of cybernetic systems in modern society.

Noticing a change in the environment and enacting change accordingly is the binary system a thermostat is responsible for. Our perfection of the steam engine around the Industrial Revolution is the best example of a slightly more complex feedback loop. We designed the trains to have valves that closed at a specific number of revolutions, reducing the intake of steam to the engine. This was an elegant solution for the time, making engines safer and more efficient. But it was still a two-dimensional application of a system that modeled itself after something as complex as the human brain.

Wiener’s Breakthrough

Like most of our technology, weapons and war played a big part in their development. World War 2 was the first time we used missiles and guided bombs, revealing the need for better navigation and GPS. Norbert Wiener spearheaded this revolution by making it possible to target moving objects.

This was a monumentally more complicated task than the binary systems humanity was used to. We had to utilize electronic signals to overcome the deviation in trajectory a missile takes as it travels over the speed of sound. Wiener went on to write the book on cybernetics in 1948. In it, he explored the vast applications of cybernetics in biology, economics, psychology, and more.

The basic principle of cybernetics is derived from the human body, or nature itself. Living things are riddled with homeostatic mechanisms that ensure their survival, enforcing our belief in equilibrium and ideal conditions. We were able to apply this understanding to modern economics: the concepts of demand and supply determining price and price correcting itself as a reaction to changes in either are cybernetic assumptions. They allow us to take a macro-economic view of the world without getting bogged down with the details of each shift.

The Birth of Modern Robotics

If you’re taking the literal definition of robots, which is a machine, don’t. Modern robotics is the chase of intelligent machines that don’t just make our tasks easier, but do the tasks for us. Over time, the ranges we can set for computers have gotten smaller and smaller and their tasks have gotten more and more complex. We applied the principles in aviation and radar, but then standardized it with the GPS. Your phone today uses your live location, motion sensors, and satellites to triangulate your exact location. Then, it records changes in your location to create possible routes and predicts travel time.

Armed with Wiener’s field-defining principles, we were able to use self-correcting systems in radio and telephone technology. Communication engineers were able to set parameters for acceptable noise levels for a much clearer sound. It’s this exact principle that underlies our development of machine learning. We have continued to set acceptable ranges for our machines so we can take our hands off more and more controls.

However, self-sustaining systems and machines continue to allude to humanity. Artificial cybernetic systems respond to automatic sensors we humans put into place. The system’s ability to regulate itself depends on our ability to predict all possible outcomes. Needless to say, it’s a painstaking process to execute. At least it used to be.

Current Applications

Here are some of the current applications:

The Medical Industry

Considering we take so much inspiration from the human body for cybernetics, it’s only natural that we try to supplement it with technology. Don’t worry, we aren’t at terminator levels of cybernetic bodies yet. Instead, think about insulin pumps. They record blood sugar levels and adjust the amount of insulin injected into the body. We don’t just use cybernetic concepts to create more advanced machinery. Our study of systems and the interdependence of their parts further our understanding of the body as a whole. This has led to the development of cochlear implants and other prosthetics that mimic and augment natural biological functions.

Artificial limbs weren’t automated or connected to the rest of your body in the past, at least in any meaningful way. At best, they were inanimate replacements to correct balance. Advancements in the field have produced purpose-built versions of prosthetic limbs. People can replace walking legs with running stilts with a single twist, or invest in limbs that are connected to their nerves. They can operate their fingers and even have touch sensors on some parts.

Cybernetics and AI: A Perfect Fit

At a few glorious moments in the history of technology, two separate branches intersect to create something amazing. Biology and robotics collaborated to give us the pacemaker, and mirrors gave us both microscopes and telescopes, but nothing goes together as well as cybernetics and artificial intelligence. They share a focus on understanding environmental factors and using them to intelligently respond to stimuli.

Using cybernetic principles of self-regulation and adaptation based on feedback and AI’s aim of intelligent machines, we can overcome the limiting factors of both. For example, we can combine feedback mechanisms with machine learning algorithms to create machines that learn from their environment and adapt accordingly. Robotics inevitably links both technologies and sets us on the path of more complex and sophisticated machines.

The simultaneous existence of advanced robotics, machine learning, and cybernetics leads to exponential growth in all fields. AI makes the creation of advanced algorithms easier, which lets us create more sophisticated robots. We can then use robotics to implement intelligent behavior at a mass scale. The factory floor completely run by automated machines we see in science fiction is an intersection of the aforementioned technologies with cybernetic sensors that make movement possible.

With all three at our disposal, engineering, and robotics have been seeing accelerated growth in their sectors. Their cooperation isn’t an accident either – cybernetics and AI are born out of each other. Systems theory is a foundational block in machine learning, and it’s based on the cybernetic principle of understanding how different parts of a system interact. With the computing power of current-day supercomputers and the predictive capabilities of artificial intelligence, the future is full of possibilities.

What the Future Holds?

Here is what the future holds:

Medicine

The medicinal applications of cybernetics outweigh everything else we may be able to accomplish. Shortly, we can expect an investment in increased endurance for factory workers or soldiers. Exoskeletons that broaden the scope of human ability have been around for a while, but AI unlocks the true potential of autonomous, wearable technology. Not only will we be able to prevent accidents and their effects, but we could also give better regenerative care to those already hurt.

Speaking of regeneration, cybernetics is the core of all research into animals that can self-regenerate after amputation. Biologists have recently discovered the ‘on switch’ in jellyfish and salamanders that allow the regrowth of entire limbs. Using CRISPR to alter our genes, we can supplement our body’s pre-existing cybernetic abilities.

Let’s say you can’t do that; it’s still not the end of cybernetic medicine. Nanorobots that can be injected into the bloodstream will be designed to detect disease and take the necessary restorative actions. They could even conduct tests in real time and transmit the results to your smartphone. We can make vaccinations obsolete with this technology, and prevent future global pandemics from ever taking root.

We may even retire from the doctoral profession altogether. Science fiction has been playing around with MRI-esque tubes that scan and fix all your illnesses automatically for decades. With modern testing and cybernetic robots that can detect slight variations in the body, we can make medicine accessible to everybody. The barrier to universal medical aid is the financial strain of training and paying enough doctors. With advanced assistive machines, we solve that problem.

Full Spectrum Vision

We’ve been expanding our visual abilities ever since the discovery of the telescope. In the past hundred years, we’ve made advancements that have revealed the farthest reaches of the cosmos with radio-wave telescopes and gazed upon the smallest of atoms with electron microscopes.

The next logical step is removing the need for instruments to achieve such amazing vision. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts have successfully given mice the ability to see in the dark. Who’s to say we’re not next? We already have cameras with monumental zoom and infrared capabilities smaller than the size of our eyes.

Psychokinesis

No, this isn’t a modern plot for a remake of ‘Matilda’. That’s telekinesis, and it lets us move things around with our minds. Psychokensis does the same thing but with realistic expectations. It uses brain implants to allow the control of machines without any interface technology. Researchers have been looking into drones that can be maneuvered directly by pilots.

This isn’t even that big of a reach: geniuses at the University of Minnesota have been working on a quadcopter you can control with your thoughts. The basis for this technology lies in concepts like ‘CyberLink’—Elon’ Musk’s concept for chip implants in the skull to mimic and assist neuron activity.

Super-intelligence

If there’s a machine humanity would benefit most from upgrading, it would be their brain. I’m not talking about an implant that aids our evolution. Rather, we could alter our brain chemistry to improve our IQ itself. China has been playing around with this idea for a few years already and shocked the world with its CCR5 editing.

Jiankui made an unexpected breakthrough when he altered the genes of two embryos. He claimed the edits were made to the genes that cause HIV, but that same gene has been connected to brain function. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to assume Jiankui used CRIS{R to enhance the cognitive abilities of those embryos. Even if he didn’t, it’s conclusive proof that we have the technology to enact these changes.

Immortality

A fitting end point for an industry that screams ‘Rise of the machines’. Humans have idolized youth and immortality for as long as we’ve existed. One of the core foundations of medicine is lengthening human life, and cybernetics could be the ultimate answer. Researchers have been using the cybernetic principle to isolate parts of our system that control aging. We can augment those systems with implants to mitigate their effects. Eventually, we could use existing gene editing technology to alter our biology at the most basic level. If we can manage to reverse, or even stall, some of our genes, we could crack the code to immortality.

Humanity has hit the point in the trajectory of its evolution that we can’t even accurately predict our own pace. AI and machine learning supplement our abilities to such a great extent that previously untouchable goals are almost within grasp. Powered by these tools, we may be looking at the biggest breakthrough in cybernetics since the invention of the computer. So the moment you see a robot walking down the street, you’ll know what makes it possible.

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