  Taking on a historical lens, this paper traces the development of cybernetics
and systems thinking back to the 1950s, when a group of interdisciplinary
scholars converged to create a new theoretical model based on machines and
systems for understanding matters of meaning, information, consciousness, and
life. By presenting a genealogy of research in the landscape architecture
discipline, the paper argues that landscape architects have been an important
part of the development of cybernetics by materializing systems based on
cybernetic principles in the environment through ecologically based landscape
design. The landscape discipline has developed a design framework that provides
transformative insights into understanding machine intelligence. The paper
calls for a new paradigm of environmental engagement to understand matters of
design and machine intelligence.
