When I compiled the "Declaration of the ASC" in 1983, I wrote:
"Each one of the scientists who have initiated, shaped, and nourished this new way of thinking would describe cybernetics differently, and each has defined it for himself. Yet they are all profoundly aware of the fact that their efforts, their methods, and their goals have led them beyond the bounds of the traditional disciplines in which they started, and that, nevertheless, there is far more overlap in their thinking than individual divergence
This was true above all for those cyberneticians who focused on the philosophical, psychological, and social implications of the notion of self-regulation rather than on its applications in electronics and engineering. Heinz von Foerster coined the term "Second-order Cybernetics" to characterize the method of investigation that included the observer/actor as essential part of the phenomena that were being studied. "Objectivity in the traditional sense" he said. "is the delusion that it is not a delusion. It is the cognitive version of the physiological blind spot: we do not see what we do not see. Objectivity is a subject's delusion that observing can be done without him. Involving objectivity is abrogating responsibility, hence its popularity"
Humberto Maturana generalized the same idea in the now famous phrase: "Everything said is said by an observer." And Gregory Bateson formulated what to me is still the most fundamental principle of our way of thinking and explaining: "The classical example of this type of explanation is the theory of evolution under natural selection. According to this theory, those organisms which were not both physiologically and environmentally viable could not possibly have survived. Therefore evolution always followed the pathways of viability. In cybernetic language, the course of events is said to be subject to restraints"
If this sounds too abstract and complicated, think of the good old thermostat. In an air conditioning system, for instance, you set the temperature you want, and you expect the thermostat to maintain it. Actually, this is not exactly what the thermostat does. When it senses a temperature above the set reference value, it switches on the cooling mechanism, and when it senses a temperature below the mark, it switches on the heating. Thus, there is a range of temperatures, where the thermostat does nothing. This is its area of equilibrium between the two constraints. The thermostat was the favorite example in explanations of cybernetics. It is usually presented as a gadget that controls conditions in its environment.
This was an observer's view and quite misleading from the controlling gadget's own perspective. As Bill Powers put it in the title of his 1973 book, "Behavior, the Control of Perception" cybernetic mechanisms operate on the basis of sensory feedback and try to control their own sensations. They know nothing of an environment, they merely act to maintain their equilibrium.
This principle is remarkably powerful because it has a large range of applications. On the one hand, it makes possible the model of epistemology that has become known as "constructivism" and that views knowledge, not as a representation of reality but as the repertoire of cognitive constructs that prove to be viable in the knower's experiential world. On the other hand, the principle of equilibrium within constraints, provides a useful approach to practical activities such as teaching. It suggests that students see no reason to learn something new in situations which, they feel, they can handle to their own satisfaction using ideas and methods they already have. - Too often teachers (especially in the sciences) forget that students are autonomous, thinking creatures who have learned to cope with problems in context-specific ways that may be incompatible with the generalized knowledge they are now to be taught.
Speaking for myself, the principle of cybernetics embodies an essential directive in the art of living: rather than worry about unalterable constraints, invent and pursue desirable possibilities in whatever space you have between them.
Perspectives