Accession Number:

AD1105095

Title:

From Cybernetics to Cyberspace

Descriptive Note:

Journal Article - Open Access

Corporate Author:

Columbia University New York United States

Personal Author(s):

• Healey,Jason

Report Date:

2019-01-01

Pagination or Media Count:

7.0

Abstract:

Cyberspace may seem new and exciting, but the Air Force has been advancing cyber concepts, technologies, and operations for more than 70 yearssince 1947, in fact, the same year the Air Force was established as a separate service. Cyber today has become shorthand for all things digital, but the term was actually coined just after World War II as cybernetics, the study of feedback, communication, and control. The term was derived from the Greek word for steersman, which refers to the fact that the steering engines of a ship are indeed one of the earliest and best developed forms of feed-back mechanism, according to Norbert Weiner, author of Cybernetics. Despite the nautical reference, modern cybernetics began with a wartime air-defense problem How to better aim anti-aircraft guns at fast-moving targets flown by pilots keen to avoid getting hit.

Descriptors:

• cyberspace
• cyberwarfare
• military operations
• national security
• cybernetics
• automation
• computer networks
• electronic warfare
• virtual reality
• information warfare
• air force
• intrusion
• military history

Subject Categories:

• Computer Systems Management and Standards

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE