Cybernetic past and future in communication theory
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Abstract
The objective of this paper is to define communication from cybernetics. Defining communication cybernetically allows us to recognize it as a central component of every living and non-living system, thus, making possible the establishment of dialogical bridges between disciplines and contemporary conceptual frameworks. The hypothesis is that defining communication cybernetically also implies the possibility of considering communication as a transdisciplinary concept and, therefore, as part of a metalanguage, which is, in turn, a central characteristic of cybernetic and systemic concepts and models. Since this is not a new approach, what is proposed is a methodological process based on a genealogical work of conceptual reconstruction that systematizes part of the intellectual development of cybernetics from the 1940s to its contemporary developments in cybersemiotics. In the conceptual reconstruction, special emphasis is placed on concepts such as machine, feedback, teleology, unity, system, observer, and communication to exemplify the possibilities of using transdisciplinary concepts in communication research and theoretical construction.
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