Cybernetics, named by Norbert Wiener in his 1948 book, studied control and communication through feedback in machines, organisms and societies, while Ludwig von Bertalanffy's general systems theory sought common laws governing complex wholes. Together they reframed phenomena as interacting systems regulated by flows of information and feedback loops. Applied to cities, these ideas treated the urban area as a dynamic system of activities, flows and interdependent parts to be modelled and steered. They underpinned the rise of computer modelling, transport simulation and the systems view of planning in the 1960s.
It produced the systems approach to planning, in which the city is modelled as a regulated whole rather than designed as a static plan. Cybernetic thinking shaped transport models, land-use simulation and later debates about smart and self-regulating cities.