ANU School of Cybernetics

Since 2021, Canberra, Australia

A school at the Australian National University in Canberra, launched in 2021 under Genevieve Bell, that treats cybernetics as a new branch of engineering for building and governing AI-era systems.

The School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University (ANU) is the most prominent new academic home for cybernetics in the twenty-first century.

History

It grew out of the 3A Institute (Autonomy, Agency and Assurance), founded in September 2017 by ANU and CSIRO’s Data61 with the anthropologist and former Intel executive Genevieve Bell as director. The institute set out to create a new applied science for managing AI and cyber-physical systems safely and sustainably. In 2021 it became part of the new School of Cybernetics, with Bell as its founding director until 2023.

Approach

The school presents cybernetics as a way to build and steer complex systems that combine technology, people and environments, with attention to their social and ecological effects. It draws explicitly on the history of the field, including the Macy Conferences.

Programmes

  • Master of Applied Cybernetics, launched in 2021 and presented as the first master’s degree of its kind.
  • Doctoral research and short courses on AI, energy, and other large technical systems.
  • A public speaker and interview series, including the Cybernetic Snacks videos with figures such as Paul Pangaro.

Further reading

  • cybernetics.anu.edu.au
  • Genevieve Bell, “Fast, Smart and Connected”, ABC Boyer Lectures (2017)

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