I agree, it's unfortunate how it ended.
My first real contact with cybernetics while being younger was a book "Cybernetics and character" by Marian Mazur (printed in 1976). Later chapters bored me but the beginning of book had impact on me as showed me a bit different mode of thinking which I believe improved my understanding of complex systems.
In book he tried to model different psychological behaviors, like conflicts, using cybernetics language and try to draw conclusion and what such simple models can tell us.
Also in introduction Mazur argued that science should not have artificial bounds as "subjects" and closed walls - there are many problems that arise in many different fields, with many different point of views. That also changed me in a way that I started to actively engage with totally different fields of science. At all, cybernetics is about abstract ideas that are quite universal.
In book he tried to model different psychological behaviors, like conflicts, using cybernetics language and try to draw conclusion and what such simple models can tell us.
Also in introduction Mazur argued that science should not have artificial bounds as "subjects" and closed walls - there are many problems that arise in many different fields, with many different point of views. That also changed me in a way that I started to actively engage with totally different fields of science. At all, cybernetics is about abstract ideas that are quite universal.