The comparative study of human and machine processes in order to understand their similarities and differences. Cybernetics often refers to machines that imitate human behavior. The term was coined in 1948 by Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), one of the great mathematicians of the 20th century, as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine." The word means "governance" in Greek. See
cyber,
AI,
techno-humanism and
robot.