Abstract
Classical mechanics is founded on the assumption that the quantities it studies have an existence of their own, which we may detect and measure, if we care, to any accuracy permitted by experimental know-how. Quantum mechanics sets theoretical limits to the accuracy we may achieve in the measurement of some quantities; their “existence” is not its object, the formalism deals with “phenomena”, not “noumena”. What about the general systems of Cybernetics (or “General Systems Theory”, or any of the more or less synonymic denominations that abound)? A major advance in scientific thought and philosophy has been the realization that all theories are (more or less successful) “models”: man-made, that is, so that the metaphysical notion of “truth”, attached in turn to Newton’s or Einstein’s descriptions of gravitation, to mention the most classic example, has lost its absolute connotation. The search for better, or just alternative models for gravitation and everything else fills all scientific journals.
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