LECTURE
Cybernetics and Design
y = f(y) · reinforcement learning · an alternative cybernetics · the score · agents and MCP · context
Cybernetics and Design
Arch 51580

By the end of this lecture, you will be able to

  • Explain cybernetics as control through communication, and reinforcement learning as the form it takes in today’s machines.
  • Describe an alternative cybernetics built on attuning, coding and choreographing, and Halprin’s score as a way to direct work you do not fully control.
  • Explain how an agent differs from a chat assistant, and how MCP connects it to software such as Rhino.
  • Apply folder structure and a written context file to control what an agent knows from one session to the next.
Part 1

Cybernetics, a short history

Part 2

An alternative cybernetics

Part 3

How agents work, and MCP

Part 4

Context through folder structure

Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, 1948 — title slide
THE CYBERNETIC LOOPy = f(y)fyyThe output is fed back as the input.Wiener’s moth: a long exposure traces the light-seeking cart’s wandering path down a dark corridor
The black box — communication at the center of control
Yuk Hui — cybernetics as a universal mode of thinking
The smart city as the most ambitious cybernetic project
Sensing, modeling, actuating — the feedback mechanism of modern machines
REINFORCEMENT LEARNINGAgenta policy: what to doin each stateEnvironmenta Go board, a road,a folder of codeActiona move, a turn of the wheel, a tool callStatewhat the agent observes nextRewarda number: win or lose, the tests pass or fail
Part 1

Cybernetics, a short history

Part 2

An alternative cybernetics

Part 3

How agents work, and MCP

Part 4

Context through folder structure

Object-Oriented Ontology — things as withdrawn and uncontrollable
An alternative framework — Coding, Choreographing, Attuning
Alternative cybernetics — from control to co-becoming
Choreographing — AI agents and emergent ecologies
A person holding up a drawn circular movement score
People enacting the score, moving through a park

“Scores communicate but do not control.”

Lawrence Halprin’s hand-drawn RSVP Cycles diagram
Part 1

Cybernetics, a short history

Part 2

An alternative cybernetics

Part 3

How agents work, and MCP

Part 4

Context through folder structure

A subway-map path beside the line “One prompt, job done.”
“Slides in 10 minutes. Not 10 PM.”
GPT-generated presentation board, waterfront wetland
GPT-generated presentation board, seasonal wetland
GPT-generated presentation board, post-industrial landscape
GPT-generated presentation board, access map

A chatbot is a person in a locked room

Chat assistantAgent
InteractionOne prompt, one responseBreaks a task apart, acts, checks, repeats
ReachText out; no hands, no eyesFiles, a terminal, a browser, connected software
MemoryWhat you pasted inThe folder it works in
Your roleWord each question wellDelegate a goal; review the result
MCP is the key to the door.
THE AGENT LOOPYour taska goal, not a sentenceReadfiles, context, the goalPlanbreak it into stepsActedit, run, call a toolCheckdid that work?Ask youunsure, or needs approvalDonereports what changedLoops untilthe check passesor it needs you
WHAT AN AGENT CAN TOUCHAgenton your computerFilesthe project folder, standardsTerminalbatch-rename 400 site photosBrowserlook up a code sectionConnected softwareRhino, QGIS, a spreadsheetYou decide which doors open,and whether it asks first.
MCP — ONE STANDARD PLUGAgentany MCP clientMCPadapterRhinoyour 3D modeladapterQGISsite dataadapterBlenderrendersadapterSpreadsheetplant scheduleAn open standard,published late 2024.The adapter runs onyour machine; what theagent reads goes tothe AI provider.Some adapters areexcellent; many areprototypes.
The request typed to the agent and the start of its work log: build a landform, run a slope analysis, capture an isometric view
Isometric view of the landform, colored green, yellow and red by slope band

Several companies make coding agents

  • Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex (OpenAI), Cursor (Anysphere), Gemini CLI (Google), and others. All of them work inside a folder on your computer.
  • They share open standards: MCP to connect software, AGENTS.md for a project’s instructions.
  • The examples today use one of them. Naming them is not an endorsement.

Check-in: what would you want an agent to open for you first?

Part 1

Cybernetics, a short history

Part 2

An alternative cybernetics

Part 3

How agents work, and MCP

Part 4

Context through folder structure

WHAT THE AGENT KNOWSNot in the windowlast week’s sessionthe shared drivewhat you meantthe drawing setyour phone callCONTEXT WINDOWIts instructionsAGENTS.md, loaded every sessionFiles it has openedwhat it read in this sessionThe conversationsummarized when it runs longClose the session:the conversationis gone.The files stay.Anything outside the window is not there for the agent.

Two kinds of memory

The conversationThe folder
LastsThis sessionAs long as the project
Use it forSteering today’s workDecisions that should outlive today
Everyday equivalentA phone callThe project folder, the standards binder
Said it twice? Ask the agent to write it into the file.

The project’s standards manual

  • The agent reads AGENTS.md at the start of every session (some tools read CLAUDE.md).
  • Tell the agent what to add, and it writes the file.
  • Keep it short, and ask the agent to audit it now and then.
AGENTS.md
# Riverside Studio website

Small LA practice, 8 people, Queens.
Plain HTML, published on GitHub Pages.

## Folders
_source/    photos + text from the team;
              read, never publish
projects/   one page per project
assets/     images, built from _source/

## Rules
Images: long edge 1920 px.
Office facts live in office.md.
Ask before deleting anything.
✓Clear names: read at a glance
website/
├─ AGENTS.md
├─ office.md
├─ index.html
├─ projects/
│   ├─ riverside-park.html
│   └─ astoria-schoolyard.html
└─ _source/
    └─ riverside-park/
        ├─ 01-plaza-dusk.jpg
        └─ description.md
✗Vague names: opened one by one
website/
├─ notes.txt
├─ page3_final_v2.html
├─ page3_final_v2 (1).html
├─ NEW/
│   ├─ IMG_4471.jpg
│   ├─ IMG_4472.jpg
│   └─ Untitled-1.html
└─ old stuff/
    └─ use this one.docx
Single source of truthCOPIES DRIFTPOINTERS DO NOTindex.html212-555-0142contact.html212-555-0142footer212-555-0198 (old)Three copies, one already wrong.office.mdphone:212-555-0142index.htmlsee office.mdcontact.htmlsee office.mdfootersee office.mdproposal templatesee office.mdOne edit fixes every page.
EVERY DAYYou ask“Add the Riversideproject.”Agent editsand previews, followingAGENTS.mdYou reviewapprove it,or correct itAgent publishesthe site updatesin a minutenext changeCorrect the same thing twice? Ask the agent to write the rule into AGENTS.md.The daily loop is where the context file grows.
Jugaad Innovation book cover — the word JUGAAD spelled out from improvised objects

Try it yourself (optional)

  • Install an MCP server so Claude operates Rhino directly.
  • Build a landform by describing it, then check what it made.
  • Set up a project folder and a context file, then publish a website.

Open Agents in Practice

/ 37
Try it yourself — Conway's Game of Life

Conway's Game of Life

Four rules · emergent behaviour · click to draw