Second-order cybernetics
Encyclopedia
Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics
, investigates the construction of models
of cybernetic system
s. It investigates cybernetics with awareness that the investigators are part of the system
, and of the importance of self-referentiality
, self-organizing
, the subject–object problem, etc. Investigators of a system can never see how it works by standing outside it because the investigators are always engaged cybernetically with the system being observed; that is, when investigators observe a system, they affect and are affected by it.
The anthropologists Gregory Bateson
and Margaret Mead
contrasted first and second-order cybernetics with this diagram in an interview in 1973. It emphasizes the requirement for a possibly constructivist
participant observer in the second order case:
Heinz von Foerster
attributes the origin of second-order cybernetics to the attempts of classical cyberneticians to construct a model of the mind. Researchers realized that:
The work of Heinz von Foerster, Humberto Maturana
, Gordon Pask
, Ranulph Glanville
, and Paul Pangaro is strongly associated with second-order cybernetics. Pask recommended the term New Cybernetics
in his last paper which emphasises all observers are participant observers that interact.
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...
, investigates the construction of models
System model
A system model is the conceptual model that describes and represents a system. A system comprises multiple views such as planning, requirement , design, implementation, deployment, structure, behavior, input data, and output data views...
of cybernetic system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
s. It investigates cybernetics with awareness that the investigators are part of the system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
, and of the importance of self-referentiality
Self-reference
Self-reference occurs in natural or formal languages when a sentence or formula refers to itself. The reference may be expressed either directly—through some intermediate sentence or formula—or by means of some encoding...
, self-organizing
Self-organization
Self-organization is the process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning...
, the subject–object problem, etc. Investigators of a system can never see how it works by standing outside it because the investigators are always engaged cybernetically with the system being observed; that is, when investigators observe a system, they affect and are affected by it.
Overview
The anthropologists Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. He had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe...
and Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
contrasted first and second-order cybernetics with this diagram in an interview in 1973. It emphasizes the requirement for a possibly constructivist
Constructivist epistemology
Constructivist epistemology is an epistemological perspective in philosophy about the nature of scientific knowledge. Constructivists maintain that scientific knowledge is constructed by scientists and not discovered from the world. Constructivists claim that the concepts of science are mental...
participant observer in the second order case:
- . . . essentially your ecosystem, your organism-plus-environment, is to be considered as a single circuit.
Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster
Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy. Together with Warren McCulloch, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Lawrence J. Fogel, and others, Heinz von Foerster was an architect of cybernetics.-Biography:Von Foerster was born in 1911 in Vienna, Austria,...
attributes the origin of second-order cybernetics to the attempts of classical cyberneticians to construct a model of the mind. Researchers realized that:
- . . . a brain is required to write a theory of a brain. From this follows that a theory of the brain, that has any aspirations for completeness, has to account for the writing of this theory. And even more fascinating, the writer of this theory has to account for her or himself. Translated into the domain of cybernetics; the cybernetician, by entering his own domain, has to account for his or her own activity. Cybernetics then becomes cybernetics of cybernetics, or second-order cybernetics.
The work of Heinz von Foerster, Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana is a Chilean biologist and philosopher. He is considered a member of the second wave of cybernetics, known for developing a theory of autopoiesis about the nature of reflexive feedback control in living systems.- Biography :After completing secondary school at the Liceo Manuel de...
, Gordon Pask
Gordon Pask
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology....
, Ranulph Glanville
Ranulph Glanville
Ranulph Glanville is a British freelance researcher and theoretician in both architecture and cybernetics.- Biography :Glanville studied architecture at the Architectural Association from 1964 to 1971...
, and Paul Pangaro is strongly associated with second-order cybernetics. Pask recommended the term New Cybernetics
New Cybernetics
New Cybernetics is a study of self-organizing systems according to Peter Harries-Jones , "looking beyond the issues of the "first", "old" or "original" cybernetics and their politics and sciences of control, to the autonomy and self-organization capabilities of complex systems"...
in his last paper which emphasises all observers are participant observers that interact.
Further reading
- Heinz von FoersterHeinz von FoersterHeinz von Foerster was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy. Together with Warren McCulloch, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Lawrence J. Fogel, and others, Heinz von Foerster was an architect of cybernetics.-Biography:Von Foerster was born in 1911 in Vienna, Austria,...
(1974), Cybernetics of Cybernetics, Urbana Illinois: University of Illinois. - Heinz von Foerster (1981), 'Observing Systems", Intersystems Publications, Seaside, CA.
- Heinz von Foerster (2003), Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition, New York : Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0387953922
- Humberto MaturanaHumberto MaturanaHumberto Maturana is a Chilean biologist and philosopher. He is considered a member of the second wave of cybernetics, known for developing a theory of autopoiesis about the nature of reflexive feedback control in living systems.- Biography :After completing secondary school at the Liceo Manuel de...
and Francisco Varela (1988). "The Tree of Knowledge", Shambhala, Boston and London. - Humberto Maturana and Bernhard Poerksen (2004), "From Being to Doing". Carl-Auer Verlag, Heidelberg.
- Gordon PaskGordon PaskAndrew Gordon Speedie Pask was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology....
(1996). Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories, Systems Research 13, 3, pp. 349-362 - Scott, B. (2001). Conversation Theory: a Dialogic, Constructivist Approach to Educational Technology, Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 8, 4, pp. 25-46.
- William Irwin ThompsonWilliam Irwin ThompsonWilliam Irwin Thompson is known primarily as a social philosopher and cultural critic, but he has also been writing and publishing poetry throughout his career and received the Oslo International Poetry Festival Award in 1986. He describes his writing and speaking style as "mind-jazz on ancient...
(ed.), (1987), 'Gaia - a way of knowing". Lindisfarne Press, New York. - Francisco VarelaFrancisco VarelaFrancisco Javier Varela García , was a Chilean biologist, philosopher and neuroscientist who, together with his teacher Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology.-Biography:...
(1991), "The Embodied Mind", MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. - Francisco Varela, (1999), "Ethical Know-How", Stanford University Press.
External links
- Principia Cybernetica
- Cybernetics and Second-Order Cybernetics
- New Order from Old: The Rise of Second-Order Cybernetics and Implications for Machine Intelligence
- Constructivist Foundations, a peer-reviewed electronic journal dedicated to constructivismConstructivismConstructivism may refer to:* Constructivist epistemology, the philosophical view* Constructivism in international relations* Constructivism , a philosophical view on mathematical proofs and existence of mathematical objects...
, second-order cybernetics, and related disciplines. - Heinz von Foerester's Self Organization
- Cybernetic Orders