hi

How is Cybernetics applied to games and What does it exatly mean to it? I've been told that its to do with behaviours, by my lecture (I'm on a Games Programming Degree). And so far thats the side of research that he's advised me to look at as I plan for my dissertation, since it is related to researching A.I., that behaves rationally and dynamically (within the the framework of finite parameters of control).

Any guide towards knowledge in this sector? So far it seems like a sea of information I've happened to be lost in.

In short (and this is drawing from memory from my systems theory class) cybernetics involves structuring the mathematical and logical layout of a closed system so that it's various components can can react to the difference in potential from other elements of that system.

As far as I've seen, complex cybernetics can be used for blending AI procedural animations, premade animations and IK animations.
As well cybernetics can be used for making AI that runs on a "flock of geese" like behavior.

But I cannot honestly say whether any complex cybernetics systems have made it out of R&D on any AAA games, with the exception possibly of some games created by Will Wright as his early games have always been more about balancing and playing the system.

Thanks so much, you've made it crystall clear.

Additionally, what is the best literature on cybernetics and which one of Will Wright early games have the simplied implementation of the it (my research project will keep everything simplified I'm touching on A.I. learning in it too).

A lot of academic words are more about group identity and connotation than hard meaning and denotation.

I think "Cybernetics" is one of them.

"Cybernetics" was coined by Norbert Weiner back in the day, and I think that the intellectual descendents of Norbert and friends have mostly abandoned the term. I think the word has been mostly replaced by "Mathematical Systems Theory" and "Control theory." One of the reasons the phrase "Cybernetics" has fallen out of favor is that it was overhyped; it fell prey to buzzword inflation. You had snake-oil "consultants" telling businesspeople they could "use cybernetics" to analyze their businesses and create efficiencies -- at which point the word lost much of its value. That variety of "cybernetics" probably looked to controls people a lot like how "Six Sigma" (a mathematical term turned business buzzword) must appear to statisticians today.

Most of the real "meat" attached to the word "Cybernetics" is work studying systems of Ordinary Differential Equations from a graph/network perspective. That certainly has value, and I think every engineer should have an appreciation for feedback.