Cybernetic Thinking Research Articles

Cybernetic Principles in Psychophysiology: Their Significance and Conclusions for Palliative Care.

Palliative care is dedicated to terminally ill patients with advanced disease, regardless of diagnosis, under the overarching premise of optimizing quality of life. This narrative review examines the extent to which principles of cybernetics and psychophysiology underlie this approach. Psychophysiology researches the physiological equivalents of psychological states and traits such as activation and individual reactivity, the interoception and the personal characteristics. Cybernetics specifies these principles, which are possible by understanding terms such as "psychophysiology" or "cybernetics" or "self-organization/autopoiesis". The meaning of these terms for palliative care can also be elucidated in relation to the terms "biofeedback", "consciousness", "pain", and "anxiety". The common themes of cybernetics and psychophysiology are environment, subjectivity, personality characteristics, the difference between time scale separation in cybernetic systems, and real-time procedures in environment and rhythm. These lead to special therapies based on psychophysiology, such as consciousness training. The concepts of quality of life, causality, the biopsychosocial model, therapy, and autonomy are examined as palliative care concepts. The equivalents can be described from the perspective of cybernetics. For some palliative care-related terms, cybernetic thinking is already present (quality of life, autonomy, symptom control), while for others, it is not (biopsychosocial). Cybernetic terms (complexity, stability, identity, rhythm) are still used to a lesser extent in palliative care. Terms like genetic basis are common in cybernetics and psychophysiology to explain the identity of the subject in transition. Identity, on the other hand, is the basis of the concept of dignity in palliative care. Psychophysiology investigates disturbances like pain and psychological illnesses, which are also present in palliative care. Psychophysiology, cybernetics, and palliative care have subjectivity and resources in common. Therapies based on cybernetic principles of psychophysiology can also be used for symptom control in palliative care in the oncology setting.

Cybernetic Thinking: Serealist and Wholist Style as An English Grammar Problem Solving Learning Perspective During a Pandemic

Cybernetic Thinking: Serealist and Wholist Style as An English Grammar Problem Solving Learning Perspective During a Pandemic

Ways of Cybernetic Thinking

Abstract: Cataloging cybernetic thinking shows how the space between what one might think of as "pure" cybernetic application and the study of cybernetics offers a useful path toward understanding how literary studies can engage with cybernetics as a philosophical and intellectual model. This vertical approach folds metadiscourses into more direct engagements with cybernetic ideas and problems and resists the drive for a conceptually and technically unified theory of cybernetic thinking in favor of a multidimensional approach to literary cybernetics. This essay outlines four ways of thinking that have shaped work in literary studies and cybernetics: 1) the analysis of the historical field of cybernetics, 2) transhistorical approaches to cybernetics, 3) the study of cybernetic concepts, methods, and vocabulary, and 4) a focus on epistemologies of failure.

Operative communication: project Cybersyn and the intersection of information design, interface design, and interaction design

This article examines the connecting lines between the Chilean Project Cybersyn’s interface design, the German Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm and its cybernetically inspired approaches towards information design, and later developments in interaction design and the emerging field of Human–Computer Interaction in the USA. In particular, it first examines how early works of designers Tomàs Maldonado and Gui Bonsiepe on operative communication, that is, language-independent (and thus internationalizable) pictogram systems and visual grammars for computational systems, were intertwined with attempts to ground industrial design in a scientific methodology, to address an era of computing machines, and to develop the concept of the interface as a heuristic for a renovated design thinking. It thereby also reconstructs further historical vanishing lines—e.g. the pictorial grammar of Otto Neurath’s ISOTYPE—of the development of the ‘ulm model’ of design. Second, the article explores how an apprehension of first-order cybernetics in West Germany—e.g. represented by hfg ulm staff like Max Bense or Abraham Moles, merged with Cybersyn’s second-order cybernetics ideas, as represented by Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model. And third, it asks about a further conceptual turn regarding an understanding of design which resulted in a focus on communicative interaction, e.g. in the later works of Fernando Flores and Terry Winograd on HCI, or in Beer’s Team Syntegrity approach. As an effect, the text will explore a specific and international network of cybernetic thinking between Latin America, Europe, and North America which emerged around Project Cybersyn, and which was occupied with questions of HCI, a democratization of design, and intelligence amplification.

Что такое интеллект? Назревающий философский вопрос, стоящий за искусственным интеллектом

The Looming Problem Behind Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Science is buried deep in how Occidental or Western Civilization has chosen to define its pe­culiar ideas of Truth (Epistemology) & Ontology (Metaphysics of us / universe). This paper identify how this Scientific Materialism and its physics paradigm has become inadequate and destructive to support living systems. AI is based on the ideas of first-order cybernetics, sufficient in creating “smart thinking appli­ances”. Second- and third-order cybernetics, requiring intelligence beyond a given context or mission driven task, has given corporate and military users overpower­ing asymmetric power over Natural & Collective Systems. Philosophy can regain its position as Queen of the Sciences if Cybernetic thinking and philosophical in­quiry expands concepts and methods advancing “intelligence” beyond command-and-control consciousness and the limits of Natural Science. A Natural Philo­sophy about the organization of whole systems would expand the tool chest of thinking beyond its analytic, reductive methodology. Moving from the domain of “Things” to whole, living Cybernetically formed systems crosses the boundary of complexity. This complexity of interlocking relationships, identity, and ways of processing information, not present in today’s guiding Information Technology theory and practice, calls into question the paradigm of Natural Science and its developmental “womb” for artificial intelligence.

Music and the Cybernetic Mundane

Few intellectual movements have been as influential as cybernetics was in the 1950s and ’60s. Fewer still have seen their stock fall so precipitously in the years since. Despite the growing body of literature that has reassessed this postwar “cybernetics moment” (Hayles, Kline, Pickering, Medina, et al.), its far-reaching impact remains curiously underappreciated, especially as regards music. This article seeks to redress this neglect, by focusing not on works and practices that spectacularize cybernetics (the “cybernetic sublime”), but instead on those activities, discourses, and projects that so thoroughly internalized and normalized the cybernetic ethos that it eludes notice (the “cybernetic mundane”). A first case study considers the little-known role played by information theory and cybernetics in the design of the RCA Synthesizer, one of the first instruments of its ilk to be developed. Among other things, I contend that cybernetic thinking pervaded the instrument’s conception to such an extent that it paradoxically contributed to the subsequent erasure of its influence from accounts of the instrument’s development and subsequent implementation as part of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. The second case concerns more recent applications of cybernetic ideals to digital music distribution, exemplified by the platform Spotify, whose routinization of these ideals has ensured not just their persistence, but their persistent misrecognition.

Profile of Cybernetic Thinking of Students in Mathematical Problem Solving Based on Serialist and Holist Thinking Style

This research aim to describe the profile of cybernetic thinking of students in solving algebra problems. This research is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach using questionnaires, written tests, and interview guidelines. Intake of subjects who have Serialist and Holist thinking styles have done using purposive sampling. The results showed students who have the Serialist thinking style at the time of the Sensory Register's attention and good perception so that information stored in Short Term Memory. Retrieval done well even when rehearsal has difficulty because of forgetting certain concepts, but information has been stored well in Long Term Memory. The encoding done well. While students who have Holist style of thinking lack attention and perceptions are not structured so that information is not stored correctly in Short Term Memory. So that retrieval can not be done correctly. Therefore during rehearsal, they have difficulty in applying the settlement method because the information is not stored correctly in Long Term Memory.

Decentralized vs. Distributed Organization: Blockchain, Machine Learning and the Future of the Digital Platform

The terms decentralized organization and distributed organization are often used interchangeably, despite describing two distinct phenomena. I propose distinguishing decentralization, as the dispersion of organizational communications, from distribution, as the dispersion of organizational decision-making. Organizations can be distributed without being decentralized (and vice versa), and having multiple management layers directly affects only distribution – not decentralization. This proposed distinction has implications for understanding the growth of digital platforms (e.g. amazon.com ), which dominate the global economy in the 21st century. While prominent platforms typically use machine learning as their core technology to transform inputs (e.g. data) into outputs (e.g. matchmaking services), blockchain has emerged as an alternative technological blueprint. I argue that blockchain enables platforms that are both decentralized and distributed (e.g. Bitcoin), whereas machine learning fosters centralized communications and the concentration of decision-making (e.g. Facebook Inc.). This distinction has crucial implications for antitrust policy, which, I contend, should shift both its analysis and its target of action away from the corporate level and focus instead on the data level. Based on this essay’s framework, I make several predictions regarding the future of competition between centralized and decentralized platforms, the evolution of government regulation, and broader implications for managers in the digital economy and for the business schools charged with their education. I conclude with reflections on the opportunity to revive cybernetic thinking for preventing a dystopian future dominated by a handful of platform behemoths.

Media communication strategy in international disputes based on information Cybernetics

Media communication strategy is a key to controlling the initiative of public opinion in international disputes. In view of the problem that the public opinion strategy of safeguarding maritime rights in China is not systematic enough, this paper uses the cybernetic thinking of information dissemination, on the premise of analyzing the law of public opinion information movement, the expression of dispute elements and the positioning of communication perspective, This paper puts forward a strategic focus on the direction and efficiency of information dissemination, and promotes legal identity and public opinion strategies. Under the condition of information asymmetry, we can achieve the same effect as information symmetry through system, mechanism and scheme design, so as to lead the trend of social ideology in international disputes.

The similarity of characteristics between cybernetics and interactivity: How to identify interactive systems/artworks using cybernetic thinking

Cybernetic theory and interactivity have much in common, including human interrelationships between modern technology and how they define and reveal the whole interactive process. Most of the key notions in both can be described as the system in conversation about the system, talking to each other through the information passed back and forth between the particular relationship in audiences and artworks. These similar languages are feedback, control, conversation and system thinking in the field of cybernetic theory and interactive artworks. As can be seen, some concepts of the cybernetic are applicable to interactivity. So, how can cybernetic thinking be applied to interactive artworks? The purpose of this article is to explore the interplay of cybernetics theory and interactivity and the connection between cybernetic/system thinking and technological/interactive artworks by illustrating the similarity of characteristics and comparing the conversation of two network systems. The goal is to deconstruct and reshape their relationships by thinking of interactive artworks in the way of cybernetic thinking.

Cybernetics for the command economy: Foregrounding entropy in late Soviet planning

The Soviet Union had a long and complex relationship with cybernetics, especially in the domain of planning. This article looks at Soviet postwar efforts to draw up plans for the rapidly developing, industrializing, and urbanizing Siberia, where cybernetic models were used to develop a vision of cybernetic socialism. Removed from Moscow bureaucracy and politics, the various planning institutes of the Siberian Academy of Sciences became a key frontier for exploring the potential of cybernetic thinking to offer a necessary corrective to Soviet planning. Researchers there put forth a vision of a dynamic Soviet economy managed through partially automated subsystems, which, while decentralized, would grant the central planning apparatus flexibility, a capacity for emergence, and overall solvency in the face of increasingly complex factors that required consideration.

МАЙБУТНЄ МАКРОЕКОНОМІКИ: КІБЕРНЕТИЧНА ОЦІНКА

This paper outlines many weaknesses in macroeconomic theory today and suggests a way out of the dilemma is to use systems or cybernetic thinking. The paper uses a topical case study to illustrate the authors’ views of economics, cybernetics and mathematics. It concludes with recommendations for the future of economics in the 21st century.

Jenseits von Kiel: Zu einer Wissenschaftsgeschichte der quantitativ-theoretischen Wende in der deutschsprachigen Geographie

Abstract. This editorial provides a theoretical and contextual framework for the themed issue “Raum. Gesetze. Daten.”. The article calls for a broader historiographic analysis of the quantitative-theoretical turn in German-speaking geography. We propose a research agenda that aims at writing a history of science beyond monumental history and classical intellectual history, that focuses on the messiness of history and takes the historicity of systems of thought into account. The endeavour is part of a growing interest in the history of science in the context of the cold war, cybernetic thinking and post-Fordist capitalism.

Folklore’s Cybernetic Imaginary, or, Unpacking the Obvious

Abstract This essay attempts to unpack a core principle of folklore’s "field-Imaginary." Characterized here as a cybernetic Ideal, folklorists take for granted that the folklore process entails a tension between mechanisms of randomizing variation and counter forces of stabilizing constraint, leading to some form of dynamic equilibrium. The argument is not that this foundational idea is wrong, but that the simple form in which we receive it from the field-Imaginary limits what we recognize as relevant to folklore studies. A more complex understanding of (neo)cybernetic thinking can help us enlarge our disciplinary frame and contemplate more critically the digital/ computational turn in folklore studies today.

The words of prevention, part I: changing the model

Objective: this part I article explores the different meanings of relevant keywords for General Practice/Family Medicine (GP/FM) in the prevention domain. The aim is to contribute to information process in GP/FM by keeping in line with the main terms used in health care organization. Methods: important keywords for GP/FM in the prevention domain were selected. Then, a search was carried out on the main sources in GP/FM databases, as well as in Medical Subject Heading and major terminological databases available online. Results and Discussion: there is discrepancy between the conceptual contents of major prevention models amongst the usual bibliographic sources of knowledge in GP/FM in particular and medicine in general. Conclusion: For GP/FM, distribution of preventive activities is now firmly established on a new constructivist model, privileging the doctor-patient relationships and introducing a cybernetic thinking on the health care activities with a special commitment to ethics and the positive duty of beneficence.

Rethinking algorithmic regulation

Purpose– The history of cybernetics holds important lessons for how we approach present-day problems in such areas as algorithmic regulation and big data. The purpose of this paper is to position Project Cybersyn as a historical form of algorithmic regulation and use this historical case study as a thought experiment for thinking about ways to improve discussions of algorithmic regulation and big data today.Design/methodology/approach– The paper draws from the author’s extensive research on Cybersyn’s history to build an argument for how cybernetic history can enrich current discussions on algorithmic regulation and the use of big data for governance.Findings– The paper identifies five lessons from the Cybersyn history that point to current data challenges and suggests a way forward. These lessons are: first, the state matters; second, older technologies have value; third, privacy protection prevents abuse and preserves human freedom; fourth, algorithmic transparency is important; and finally, thinking in terms of socio-technical systems instead of technology fixes results in better uses of technology.Research limitations/implications– Project Cybersyn was a computer network built by the socialist government of Salvador Allende under the supervision of the British cybernetician Stafford Beer. It formed part of the government’s program for economic nationalization. Work on the project ended when a military coup brought the Allende government to an early end on September 11, 1973. Since we do not know how the system would have functioned in the long term, parts of the argument are necessarily speculative.Practical implications– The paper uses Cybersyn’s history to suggest ways that the Chilean experience with cybernetic thinking might enhance, improve, and highlight shortcomings in current discussions of algorithmic regulation.Originality/value– The paper provides an original argument that connects one of the most ambitious cybernetic projects in history to present day technological challenges in the area of algorithmic regulation.

Applying cybernetic thinking to becoming a learning organization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of the application of cybernetic thinking by the learning and development unit in a national branch of a large multinational company to help move towards its strategic objective of becoming a learning organization. Design/methodology/approach – A work-based action research approach was adopted. Through a series of action research cycles, the paper presents the interplay between developments in the organization and several strands of cybernetic thinking. Findings – Cybernetic thinking was incrementally integrated to create a new support framework for developing a learning organization. Research limitations/implications – As a case study the work reported has limited generality. Users of the support framework need to take account of and, to some degree, replicate the specific conditions that led to its success. These included the strategic aim of becoming a learning organization and supportive senior management. Practical implications – The case study and framework will be of greatest use to other organizations that have the strategic intent of becoming a learning organization, but seek guidance on implementation. Social implications – Cybernetic thinking was used to create feedback loops from internal and external conditions, to enhance learning, performance and adaptivity. This involved all employees in their and their organization's future development. Originality/value – The paper's value offers a concrete instance of applying cybernetic thinking to the creation of a learning organization, a task often found to be difficult in practice. This has been abstracted into a support framework.

Making distinctions: reflections on learning, knowing and evaluating

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer some reflections on “making distinctions”, which in contrast to “separating”, the author views as unifying rather than dividing. The author remarks follow the theme of the conference, “Acting-Learning-Understanding”, and characterise making distinctions as inherently cybernetic both conceptually and in practice. The classic cybernetic principle of error detection and correction, for example, typically has a lopsided focus on “error”. The author treats it as the on-going single act of distinguishing between “error” and “correct”, where to determine the degree to which a system is in error is simultaneously to determine the degree to which it is correct. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a viewpoint though conceptual analysis, reflection, and critique, drawing on examples form the research (employing ethnography, case studies, observation, and participant observation) and consulting. Findings – In practice we detect “correct” no less than “error”. Learning entails both “error” and “correct”. Although commonly held that we learn best (or only) from error, the author argues sometimes we can best (or only) learn from what goes right. Acting entails knowing. This calls for distinguishing between knowledge, as a storable, transferable “thing”, and knowing as part of shared practice. Understanding entails evaluating. Distinguishing between morally acceptable and unacceptable, for example, can set, confirm, or change norms for distinguishing “error” and “correct”. Accordingly, evaluating needs to be a deliberate part of cybernetic and systems thinking and practice. Research limitations/implications – Presents four areas where further research could fruitfully be pursued: assessing the distinct function of “correct” within various kinds of systems; designing and testing educational and organizational activities for learning from what goes right; designing and testing organizational and technological infrastructures that support “knowing” as coordinated designed activity; and, designing and testing means for the deliberate incorporation of evaluating as part of systems thinking and practice. Practical implications – Suggests that educational and organizational activities could be more productive by fostering learning from what goes right. Suggests there is value in the development of organizational and technological infrastructures that support “knowing” as coordinated designed activity (vs “knowledge” seen as a storable, transferable “thing”). Suggests that the deliberate inclusion of evaluating in social and organizational systems could further more responsive and responsible action. Social implications – Contributes to a call for publicly viable forms of cybernetic and systemic thinking and practice, including the systemic inclusion of evaluation in public affairs. Originality/value – Contributes to the conceptual development and constructive critique of key concepts in cybernetic and systems thinking and practice, especially understanding making distinctions as unifying rather than separating, and as inherently cybernetic as such. Offers a critique of the common focus on “error” in error detection and correction. Argues for the importance of learning from what goes right. Identifies the need for a better understanding of “knowing” as part of practice (as distinct from “knowledge” as a storable, sharable “thing”). Argues for the need to treat evaluation as an inherent, necessary, and productive part of systems thinking and practice.

CO-EVOLUTION PATH MODEL (CePM): SUSTAINING ENTERPRISES AS COMPLEX SYSTEMS ON THE EDGE OF CHAOS

The purpose of this study is primarily theoretical—to propose and detail a model for system evolution and show its derivation from the fields of enterprise architecture (EA), cybernetics, and systems theory. Cybernetic thinking is used to develop the coevolution path model (CePM) to explain how enterprises coevolve with their environments. The model reinterprets Ashby's law of requisite variety, Stafford Beer's viable system model, and Conant and Ashby's theorem of the “good regulator” to exemplify how various complexity management theories could be synthesized into a cybernetic theory of EA—informing management of mechanisms to maintain harmony between the evolution of the enterprise as a complex system and the evolution of its complex environment.

When safety science meets the practitioners: Does safety science contribute to marginalization of practical knowledge?

In this paper we explore the proposal that knowledge generated by safety scientists may displace or marginalize existing local or system-specific safety knowledge embedded in operational practices. The proposition is based on theory about relationships between knowledge and power, complemented by organizational theory on standardization and accountability. We suggest that the increased reliance on self-regulation and international standards in safety management may be drivers for a shift in the distribution of power regarding safety, changing the conception of what is valid and useful knowledge. Case studies from two Norwegian transport sectors, the railway and the maritime sectors, are used to illustrate the proposition. In both sectors we observe discourses based on generic approaches to safety management and an accompanying disempowerment of the practitioners and their perspectives.We discuss some contributing elements to this development: for example, the roles of external and internal HSE-specialists and the increased importance of international standards. We propose that the search for broad generalizations and the widespread adoption of cybernetic thinking in safety science may resonate with societal trends towards standardization and bureaucratic control.We conclude that safety scientists, safety professionals, and organizations that hire safety professionals need to be sensitive to the possibility that their well-intentioned efforts to promote safety may lead to a marginalization of local and system-specific safety knowledge.