On 28th May, the Centre for Digital Trust and Society (CDTS) hosted a captivating seminar featuring Dr Colin Williams, who delved into the neglected history of the cybernetics movement and its crucial split from AI, tracing how these roots continue to shape today’s developments in AI, autonomous systems, and human–machine teaming. Drawing on Norbert Wiener’s seminal Cybernetics (1948), Dr Williams unpacked how early ideas around computational synthetic agency still influence debates on human exceptionalism and the societal use of non-human beings. The talk, chaired by Prof Daniel Dresner, sparked engaging discussions on where these trajectories might lead, followed by networking that fostered rich interdisciplinary connections.
About the speaker: Dr Colin Williams
Dr Colin Williams is a principal consultant with CDS Defence and Security, a specialist cyber security and resilience consultancy based in Cheltenham. He is also a visiting honorary professor at De Montfort University and an Honorary Fellow at the University of Warwick. His career in information assurance and cyber security spans three decades.
Key Takeaways from the Talk
The forgotten history of cybernetics, and its early split from AI, reveals how long-standing ideas about control, communication, and machine agency continue to shape our assumptions about human uniqueness and guide future directions for AI, autonomous systems, and human–machine collaboration.
Check out the seminar
Interactive Discussions: Attendees engaged in lively Q&A sessions, leading to insightful conversations on research impact and future challenges.
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