The game-changing women in an emerging STEM field

Cybernetics is a field of study that looks at the interplay between technology, people and the environment. By doing so, it considers the holistic impact of new technologies on the world.  

Although this field of future-builders is male-dominated, there are also remarkable women whose voices and stories have shaped and developed cybernetics. 

Genevieve Bell  

Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell is a cybernetician, futurist and cultural anthropologist. If you live, work or play in Canberra, you probably know her as the Vice-Chancellor and President of The Australian National University (ANU). But perhaps you do not know her work.  

Bell spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley where she guided tech giant Intel’s product development and research capabilities. She has contributed to global debates on artificial intelligence and society.  

She argues “the future is built every day in the present,” and says that the choices we make in designing technologies to include humans and the environment “in the loop” can create a better future for all of us. 

While having the foresight to intentionally build the future as an individual is impressive, inspiring and teaching the next generation of future-builders is arguably even more important. Bell is also the inaugural director of the ANU School of Cybernetics, which was the first new school to open at ANU in more than 40 years. The school was founded with the intention of establishing cybernetics as a method to navigate the major societal transformations – such as technological developments and climate change – expected to occur in the future. It also prioritises the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges in cybernetics. 

Professor Katherine Daniell is the current director of the ANU School of Cybernetics. She says that cybernetics “allows the big challenges of our time to be navigated collectively not separately”.  

In creating a learning environment for the next generation of cyberneticians, Bell has established a place that motivates students to gather and reimagine how cybernetics can help us to deal with the challenges of today. 

Jasia Reichardt 

More than half a century before the official launch of the ANU School of Cybernetics, Jasia Reichardt opened the landmark exhibition Cybernetic Serendipity in London.  

In a time before computers were in every household, the 1968 exhibition highlighted the technology’s potential through having computers interact with art, poetry and music. It explored how machines are both capable of creating art and being art themselves. Cybernetic Serendipity highlighted the functions of computers beyond data processing. 

For Reichardt, “cybernetics is a language through which different fields and systems can communicate”. 

One of the artworks at the exhibition, SAM, created by Edward Ihnatowicz was a sound activated mobile sculpture. It would ‘bend its flower-like head’ towards sounds in the space, sounds of voices, sounds of humans – showing the way humans and machines could respond to each other and communicate. 

This exhibition had giant impact. Reichardt is considered one of the pioneers of cybernetics. In recognition of her extraordinary contribution to the field, Reichardt was awarded an honorary doctor of letters from ANU earlier this year. 

Margaret Mead 

In 1946, almost 80 years ago, a group of people gathered for the first iteration of what is now known as the Macy Conferences.  

A total of 10 Macy Conferences ran from 1946-1953, bringing leading scholars and researchers together to lay the groundwork for the brand-new field of cybernetics. 

These conferences were cross-disciplinary and looked for ways to create new technological futures while considering the wider, unintended impacts of technology on society and environment. 

One of only two women to be heavily involved in these now famous conferences was renowned cultural anthropologist, Margaret Mead. 

Her anthropological background shaped the basics of the cybernetics, pushing for new technology to consider humanity as well as science. Mead was fundamental in bringing the question ‘how will this impact people and communities?’ to the cybernetic toolkit.  

The Macy Conferences had implications for the development of engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence. But Mead’s influence was important in helping us to consider that innovations should serve humanity, rather than harm it. 

Back to the future: awards for ‘remarkable people’

Both Genevieve Bell and Jasia Reichardt were recently recognised for their impact in building a global cybernetic community at the American Society for Cybernetics Conference awards ceremony in Washington.  

Daniell says the awards highlight the pivotal roles Bell and Reichardt have played in growing cybernetic communities, research, practice, art and education around the world. 

“These women, and their work, enable glimpses of possible futures and make the spaces possible to translate hopeful imaginations into reality.” 

Margaret Mead continues to be honoured through a namesake award given by the American Society for Cybernetics. In a serendipitous twist, this year Genevieve Bell became the first recipient of the Margaret Mead Prize in recognition of her accomplishments in growing the cybernetics community through education and advocacy.  

Professor Andrew Meares, Cybernetic Futures Lead of the ANU School of Cybernetics, believes Bell continues the approaches and possibilities that Mead started. 

“Mead is renowned for her work articulating alternative futures in the making. Bell’s ongoing contributions to cybernetic research, education and engagement provide many alternatives for many futures,” he says. 

Here’s to the women who have worked in their own times to create a better future.