1. Third Order Cybernetics as the Evolution of Society
Stuart A. Umpleby
Department of Management
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052

2. A presentation with two parts
The first part of this presentation will be about expanding the conception of science in accord with the correspondence principle
The second part will be a presentation on my understanding of Vladimir Lepskiy’s idea of third order cybernetics
Hence, a report 1) on recent work in the U.S. and Europe and 2) in Russia

3. Part I Expanding the conception of science

4. The origin of cybernetics
The field of cybernetics emerged in the late 1940s during a series of conferences in New York City sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
During World War II many scientists had worked on applied projects
They wanted to talk about what they had learned

5. The Macy Foundation conferences
In New York City between 1946 and 1953
“Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems”
Chaired by Warren McCulloch, a philosopher at MIT
Participants included G. Bateson, Margaret Mead, N. Wiener, J. von Neumann, H. von Foerster, R. Ashby
After Wiener’s book in 1948, the name of the conferences was changed to the Macy Conferences on Cybernetics

6. Experimental epistemology
McCulloch was a philosopher who wanted to understand cognition
He decided to test existing theories of knowledge from philosophy using neurophysiology
How does the brain work?
He and Maturana and von Foerster and others conducted biological experiments
They concluded that observations independent of observers are not physically possible

7. Heinz von Foerster

8. Including the observer
Von Foerster wanted to include the observer within science
In 1974 he invented the term “second order cybernetics” hoping to shift the focus of attention in cybernetics from technical applications to the study of cognition

9. How the nervous system works
The blind spot
Image on your retina
Move your eyes within your head
Conversations at a party
Listening to a speech
Two kittens
Injured war veterans

10. First and second order cybernetics in the 1970s
Observed systems
The purpose of a model
Controlled systems
Interaction among variables in a system
Theories of social systems
Observing systems
The purpose of the modeler
Autonomous sys.
Interaction between observer and observed
Theories of the interaction between ideas and society

11. Efforts to make a scientific revolution
Tutorials about the history and fundamentals of cybernetics at conferences in the U.S. and Europe beginning in the late 1970s
Tutorials were necessary because of the lack of university courses and degree programs
After doing this for several years I wanted to move on
How does a scientific revolution end?

12. Kuhn’s description of a scientific revolution
Periods of normal science and periods of revolutionary science
Kuhn emphasized the transition from normal science to a revolutionary period due to “incommensurable definitions”
He said that a revolutionary period ended when the younger generation was persuaded to adopt the new point of view

13. The cybernetics of science
NORMAL SCIENCE
The correspondence Incommensurable
principle definitions
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

14. How does a revolution end?
Von Foerster told me about the CP but did not use it in his arguments
Karl Popper mentioned the CP but also did not use it in his arguments
When I was in Poland in the 1980s, I asked Wladyslaw Krajewski for his opinion on a paper I had written on the CP
He said that a new dimension was necessary not just a more general theory
So, how could the role of the observer be formulated as a new dimension?

15. New philosophy of science
New philosophy of science
An Application of the Correspondence Principle
Old philosophy of science
Amount of attention paid to the observer

16. Niels Bohr

17. The Correspondence Principle
Proposed by Niels Bohr when developing the quantum theory
Any new theory should reduce to the old theory to which it corresponds for those cases in which the old theory is known to hold
A new dimension or idea is required

18. Advantages of using the Correspondence Principle
The new dimension either was neglected or assumed not to be significant
All the data that supported the old theory also supports the new theory (small circle)
Now many more experiments can be conducted to investigate the region created by the new dimension (large oval)

19. Going beyond biological cybernetics
Francisco Varela once told me at a conference in Vienna that what I was calling second order cybernetics was not SOC
He said I should study biology more
I respected the work of Varela, McCulloch, von Foerster and Maturana on biological cybernetics, but I thought that my work with social systems was also interesting

21. Three theories of knowledge
World 1 3
Observer
Description 2

22. How cybernetics expands science
The positivist approach to science would be the left side of the triangle
Second order cybernetics would be first a theory of knowledge (bottom) and later also a description of how knowledge is used (right side)
With the triangle second order cybernetics became not a competing epistemology to positivism but a theory of epistemologies

23. Strategies for advancing social science
For many decades social scientists have tried to imitate the physical sciences
Physics was regarded as an example of how to do science
More recently the idea is to expand science so the physical sciences become a special case of a larger view of science
The new view includes purposeful systems
Inanimate objects (physics) are a special case

24. From second order cybernetics to second order science
Philosophers of science usually place the scientist outside what is observed
Second order cybernetics claims that descriptions are constructed in the minds of scientists
It places a scientist inside the social system that is observed
These thoughts are bringing about a reconsideration of our conception of science

25. How to expand science
The Correspondence Principle suggests how to make a persuasive case that science has been expanded: add a new dimension or a new consideration
Three new additions can now be claimed
The first is von Foerster’s – the amount of attention paid to the observer
A second is the effect that a theory has on the system observed

26. A second new dimension
In the Newtonian view of the world scientific theories do not alter the world
With the exception of quantum mechanics, physicists usually assume that theories do not change the way that nature works
But theories of social systems are constructed in the hope that theories will guide actions that will change the way social systems operate
There is a dialogue between theories and societies

27. A third consideration
Currently in the U.S. there is growing interest in design thinking – the design of new products, new services, new apps
Government programs are also designed, evaluated and modified
New scientific ideas are also invented, advocated and accepted or not
How is design related to science?

28. The place of design in science
Random variation and selection occur in Darwin’s theory of evolution
Popper’s notion of conjectures and refutations is a well-established conception of the scientific process
The emphasis is on empirically testing conjectures
But where do conjectures come from?
Perhaps design methods could be used

29. Some design methods
Those who teach design have developed ways to make people more creative
Do not reject ideas too quickly
“Think with your pencil” or make many sketches
Get to know your client
Involve people with varied backgrounds

30. The importance of second order science
Expanding our conception of science opens new lines of investigation for research
Treating physics not as an example for all of science but rather as a special case of a larger conception of science will help the unification of the sciences
New possibilities for research in the social sciences will mean advances in the social sciences at a time when they are needed

31. Part II My conception of third order cybernetics

32. An interpretation of third order cybernetics
Vladimir Lepskiy and his colleagues at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) are developing the idea of “third order cybernetics”
Recently the idea was discussed in Moscow
I made a presentation on recent work on cybernetics in the US and Europe (previous slides) and offered some thoughts on third order cybernetics (subsequent slides)

33. Third order cybernetics
The “meta subject” can be thought of on three levels
At the micro level the meta subject would be the family or the work group
At the meso level the meta subject would be a company or a city
At the macro level the meta subject would be a country or the world

34. The micro level
The field of family therapy has been influenced by cybernetics
Key authors are Gregory Bateson, Paul Watzlawick, Don Jackson, Carlos Sluzki

35. The meso level
At the level of the firm or organization there are authors from cybernetics and systems science
Stafford Beer, Russell Ackoff, Peter Checkland, Mike Jackson

36. The Macro level
At the macro level for the key authors one must go farther back in time
In the 17th century people were trying to figure out how to create self-governing societies
The task was to build a reflexive society, one in which people were both rulers and ruled
Eventually the goal became to go beyond both the king and the Pope (both still exist but have diminished power)

37. Society as a reflexive system
The macro level is most interesting because it is the most reflexive
There are many feedback loops in a large social system
There are many challenges – how to resolve internal conflicts, how to defend the society against interference from outside, how to create an innovative society and how to achieve steady social progress

38. Key steps at the macro level in Europe
Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope in 800
In 1215 the Magna Carta was the first agreement to limit the power of a king
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) initiated the Protestant Reformation, thus limiting the power of the Pope
In the thirty years war (1618 – 1648) about 1/3 of the people in Europe were killed in wars between Protestants and Catholics

39. Peace of Westphalia
During the 30 years war many people moved from Europe to N. America to escape the religious conflicts
The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the 30 years war, supported the idea of religious freedom and largely created the conception of the nation state
Each country could choose its own religion
Each person could worship as he or she chose
Individuals and nations became self-governing

40. The problem was aristocracy
A political/ religious hierarchy was the idea that supported the aristocracy
There were two solutions
Move to America and create a new society on the frontier
Think one’s way out of the box by inventing ideas like individual rights, a social contract, and majority rule and minority rights
Ideas developed in Europe were tested in N. America

41. Leading theorists were
Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679) England
John Locke ( ) England
Voltaire (1694 – 1778) France
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778) France
Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) Ireland

42. Two goals of self-government
Assembling enough power to achieve social purposes
Limiting he power of the executive so that the rights of individuals are not compromised

43. Organizational structure
A federal system – local, state and national governments
Branches of government – legislative, executive, and judicial branches
The branches were independent and could check abuse of power by another branch
Other institutions – free press, business organizations, labor unions, non-governmental organizations

44. Principles of government
Majority rule and minority rights
Right to private property
Limited power of government, trial by jury, right to a lawyer
Religious liberty
Freedom of speech
Secular authority replaced religious authority
The state -- the citizenry as a whole -- could regulate both religion and the economy

45. A note on geography
The type of government in a country depends in part on geography. See Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel
A country with strong borders (e.g., UK and US) worries less about what people say and do
A country with no clearly defined borders (e.g., on the Central European Plain) must keep control of the population in order to repel invaders

46. A common point of view
During the Cold War there were two points of view – capitalism and communism
These ideologies gave meaning and purpose to life and provided organizing principles
An alternative, more general point of view is what Karl Popper called “piecemeal social engineering” and what Donald T. Campbell called an “experimenting society”

47. Third order cybernetics
If third order cybernetics is seen as a theory of experimentation and reform in social systems, it will connect the earlier work in cybernetics with political reform and the evolution of society
This is a major addition to cybernetics and to the unification of science
My thanks to Vladimir Lepskiy and his colleagues

48. Contact information
Stuart A. Umpleby Department of Management The George Washington University Washington, DC USA blogs.gwu.edu/umpleby

49. Prepared for a meeting of the
International Academy for
Systems and Cybernetic Sciences
Chengdu, China
21 October 2017