6/3 AN INTRODUCTION TO CYBERNETICS 



meant by the input "being in a certain state" — it is the state that would 

 be shown on a snapshot of the controls. Also let us assume that 

 the output consists of a set of dials, attached to the Box and affected 

 by the mechanism inside, so that the pointers on the dials show, by 

 their positions at any particular moment, the state of the output. 



We now see the experimenter much like the engineer in a ship, 

 who sits before a set of levers and telegraphs by which he may act 

 on the engines, and who can observe the results on a row of dials. 

 The representation, though it may seem unnatural, is in fact, of 

 course, capable of representing the great majority of natural systems, 

 even if biological or economic. 



6/3. The Investigation. A man cannot step twice into the same 

 river; neither can he twice conduct the same experiment. What 

 he can do is to perform another experiment which differs from the 

 first only in some way that is agreed to be negligible. 



The same fact applies to an examination of the Black Box. The 

 basic data will always be of the form : 



in which, at each of a sequence of times, the states of the Box's 

 various parts, input and output, are recorded. Thus, the Box that 

 fell from the Flying Saucer might lead to the protocol: 



(The word protocol will be reserved for such a form and sequence.) 



Thus every system, fundamentally, is investigated by the collection 



of a long protocol, drawn out in time, showing the sequence of input 



and output states. Thus if one system had possible input states a 



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