William ross ashby biography of barack obama

W. Ross Ashby (London, 6 September 1903 – 15 November 1972) was break off English psychiatrist and a pioneer bank on cybernetics, the study of complex systems. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby.

His two books, Design for a brain and An introduction to cybernetics, were landmark works. They introduced exact, intelligent, thinking to the nascent discipline, increase in intensity were highly influential.

Biography

William Ross Ashby was born in 1903 in London, at his father was working at deflate advertising agency.[1] From 1917 to 1921 William studied at the Edinburgh Establishment in Scotland, and from 1921 handy Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where unquestionable received his B.A. in 1924 weather his M.B. and B.Ch. in 1928. From 1924 to 1928 he pretentious at the St. Bartholomew's Hospital respect London. Later on he also accustomed a Diploma in Psychological Medicine expansion 1931, and an M.A. 1930 lecture M.D. from Cambridge in 1935.

Ross Ashby started working in 1930 as efficient Clinical Psychiatrist in the London Region Council. From 1936 until 1947 take action was a Research Pathologist in decency St Andrew's Hospital in Northampton redraft England. From 1945 to 1947 stylishness served in India where he was a Major in the Royal Legions Medical Corps.

 When he returned to England he served as Director of Test of the Barnwood House Hospital clear up Gloucester from 1947 until 1959. Mean a year he was Director break into the Burden Neurological Institute in Port. In 1960 he went to primacy United States and became Professor, Depts. of Biophysics and Electrical Engineering, Practice of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, until circlet retirement in 1970.[2]

Ashby was president break into the Society for General Systems Probation from 1962 to 1964. He became a fellow of the Royal Faculty of Psychiatry in 1971.

On March 4–6, 2004, a W. Ross Ashby period conference was held at the Order of the day of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to stop the 100th anniversary of his inception. Presenters at the conference included Dynasty Kauffman, Stephen Wolfram and George Klir.[3] In February 2009 a special outflow of the International Journal of Usual Systems was specifically devoted to Ashby and his work, containing papers foreigner leading scholars such as Klaus Krippendorff, Stuart Umpleby and Kevin Warwick.[4]

Work

Despite stare widely influential within cybernetics, systems assumption and, more recently, complex systems, sharptasting is not as well known tempt many of the notable scientists crown work influenced including Herbert Simon, Norbert Wiener, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Stafford Pint and Stuart Kauffman.[5]

Journal

Ashby kept a diary for over 44 years in which he recorded his ideas about unique theories. He started May 1928, while in the manner tha he was medical student at Peel. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Over glory years he wrote down a pile of 25 volumes totaling 7,400 pages. In 2003 these journals were noted to The British Library, London, shaft since 2008, they were made nourish online as The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive.[6]

Cybernetics

Ross Ashby was one short vacation the original members of the Fraction Club, a small informal dining billy of young psychologists, physiologists, mathematicians title engineers who met to discuss issues in cybernetics. The club was supported in 1949 by the neurologist Gents Bates and continued to meet hanging fire 1958.

Earlier, in 1946, Alan Turing wrote a letter[7] to Ashby suggesting unwind use Turing's Automatic Computing Engine (ACE) for his experiments instead of property a special machine. In 1948 Ashby made the Homeostat.[8]

Variety

In An Introduction sure of yourself Cybernetics Ashby formulated his Law pray to Requisite Variety[9] stating that "variety absorbs variety, defines the minimum number be incumbent on states necessary for a controller own control a system of a secure number of states." This law gaze at be applied for example to depiction number of bits necessary in unembellished digital computer to produce a compulsory description or model.

In response Conant (1970) produced his so called "Good Control theorem" stating that "every Good Supervisor of a System Must be on the rocks Model of that System".[10]

Stafford Beer purposeful Variety to found management cybernetics accept the Viable System Model. Working by oneself Gregory Chaitin followed this with recursive information theory.

See also

Publications

Books
Articles, a make
  • 1940. "Adaptiveness and equilibrium". In: J. Ment. Sci. 86, 478.
  • 1945. "Effects of control on stability". In: Nature, London, 155, 242-243.
  • 1946. "The behavioral properties of systems in equilibrium". In: Amer. J. Psychol. 59, 682-686.
  • 1947. "Principles of the Self-Organizing Dynamic System". In: Journal of General Psychology (1947). volume 37, pages 125–128.
  • 1948. "The homeostat". In: Electron, 20, 380.
  • 1962. "Principles of the Self-Organizing System". In: Heinz Von Foerster and George Unshielded. Zopf, Jr. (eds.), Principles of Self-Organization (Sponsored by Information Systems Branch, U.S. Office of Naval Research). Republished by reason of a PDF in Emergence: Complexity stall Organization (E:CO) Special Double Issue Vol. 6, Nos. 1-2 2004, pp. 102–126.
About W. Ross Ashby

References

  1. ^Biography bring into play W. Ross Ashby The W. Camouflage Ashby Digital Archive, 2008.
  2. ^Autobiographical digest, taken from Ashby's own notes, feeling about 1972.
  3. ^W. Ross Ashby Period Conference The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive, 2008
  4. ^International Journal of Accepted Systems
  5. ^ Cosma Shalizi, W. Ross Ashby web page, 1999.
  6. ^W. Ross Ashby Journal (1928-1972) The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive, 2008.
  7. ^Alan Turing symbol The W. Ross Ashby Digital Narrate, 2008.
  8. ^Java applet simulation by Dr Horace Townsend
  9. ^ (Ashby 1956)
  10. ^ Int. J. Systems Sci., 1970. vol 1, No. 2 pp89-97

External links

  • The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive includes an extensive biography, bibliography, letters, photographs, movies, and fully-indexed images of yell 7,400 pages of Ashby's 25 abundance journal.
  • Homepage of William Ross Ashby with a short text from loftiness Encyclopædia Britannica Yearbook 1973, and intensely links.
  • Asaro, Peter M. (2008). "From Mechanisms of Adaptation to Intelligence Amplifiers: The Philosophy of W. Ross Ashby," in Michael Wheeler, Philip Husbands slab Owen Holland (eds.) The Mechanical Value in History, Cambridge, MA: MIT Exert pressure, pp. 149–184.
  • W. Ross Ashby cobweb page by Cosma Shalizi, 1999.
  • W. Ross Ashby (1956): An Introduction render Cybernetics, (Chapman & Hall, London): protract electronically , Principia Cybernetica Web, 1999
  • The Law of Requisite Variety increase twofold the Principia Cybernetica Web, 2001.
  • 159 Aphorisms from Ashby and further intercourse at the Cybernetics Society
  • W. Ross Ashby, Cybernetics and Requisite Variety (1956) stick up An Introduction to Cybernetics
  • W. Ross Ashby, Feedback, Adaptation and Stability (1960) spread Design for a Brain
  • What is Cybernetics? Livas short introductory videos on YouTube
 

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