In the theory of cybernetics

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...

, teleogenesis (from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 teleos = 'purpose' and genesis = 'creation') is the creation of goal-creating processes.

According to Peter Corning

Peter Corning

Peter Andrew Corning is an American biologist, consultant, and complex systems scientist, and Director of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems, in Friday Harbor, Washington, and is known especially for his work on the causal role of synergy in evolution.- Biography :Peter Corning was...

:
"A cybernetic system is by definition a dynamic purposive system; it is 'designed' to pursue or maintain one or more goals or end-states".

Teleogenesis refers from an extension of classical cybernetics, as proposed by Norbert Wiener

Norbert Wiener

Norbert Wiener was an American mathematician.A famous child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems.Wiener is regarded as the originator of cybernetics, a...

, Ashby and others in late 1950s.