Second-order cybernetics
[1] Second-order cybernetics was developed between the late 1960s and mid 1970s[note 1] by Heinz von Foerster and others, with key inspiration coming from Margaret Mead.
[4] The concept of second-order cybernetics is closely allied to radical constructivism, which was developed around the same time by Ernst von Glasersfeld.
[6][7][8] Its concerns include autonomy, epistemology, ethics, language, reflexivity, self-consistency, self-referentiality, and self-organizing capabilities of complex systems.
The 1967 keynote address to the inaugural meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) by Margaret Mead, who had been a participant at the Macy Conferences, is a defining moment in its development.
[32] A key concept in second-order cybernetics is that observers (and other actors, such as designers, modellers, users...) are to be understood as participants within the systems with which they are engaged, in contrast to the detachment implied in objectivity and conventional scientific practice.
Second-order cybernetics' emphasis on participation and inclusion has led to affinities and overlaps with action research,[7] design,[33][34] and the creative arts.
[40] Glanville identified a number of "desirable" ethical qualities implicit in the cybernetic devices of the black box, distinction, autonomy, and conversation.
[44] The relationship of first-order and second-order cybernetics can be compared to that between Isaac Newton's view of the universe and that of Albert Einstein.
Mead and Bateson, for instance, noted that they and Wiener understood themselves as participant observers in contrast to the detached "input-output" approach typical of engineering.
Some see the definition of third and higher orders of cybernetics as a next step in the development of the discipline, but this has not won widespread acceptance.
[49] Second-order cybernetics is closely identified with Heinz von Foerster and the work of the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.
It plays an important role in the work of Heinz von Foerster[31] and is "inextricably linked with second order cybernetics".
Second-order cybernetics has been a point of reference in the creative arts, including in theatre studies[53] and music theory.
[54][55] Practitioners in the creative arts whose work is associated with second-order cybernetics include Roy Ascott,[56] Herbert Brün,[57] and Tom Scholte.
[65] Contributions in education, include: The ideas of second-order cybernetics have been influential in systemic and constructivist approaches to family therapy,[67][68] with Bateson's work at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto being a key influence.
Family therapists influenced by aspects of second-order cybernetics include Lynn Hoffman, Bradford Keeney and Paul Watzlawick.
[71] Second-order cybernetics was influenced by George Spencer Brown's Laws of Form, which was later developed by Francisco Varela into a calculus for self-reference.
[1] Mathematicians and logicians working in second-order cybernetics include Gotthard Günther, Lars Löfgren, and Louis Kauffman.
