Towards a unified ontology of cybernetics: bridging mechanology and CAS for cooperative societies through thematic synthesis
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to conceptually unite an ontology of cybernetics, bridging living and technical systems, to facilitate future epistemological and theoretical advancements applicable to highly technical societies by crafting a set of definitions that elucidate the nature of the world in which these systems operate.
Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a thematic synthesis of two systems/cybernetic traditions: complex adaptive systems and mechanology. The primary sources for this research were the main theses and correlated papers published in the Simondon case for mechanology, and the seminal literature preselected by the Santa Fe Institute for complex adaptive systems.
Findings
The study proposes the following concepts: Individuation: the emergence of new properties in an individual composed of synergistically related parts; Technical evolution: the notion that technical objects evolve into living beings; circular causality: the notion that feedback and feedforward processes shape the organisation and structure of systems and their relationship with the environment; The milieu refers to the part of the environment that has a relationship of co-production, co-dependency, and co-evolution with systems. Metastability is a state that transcends stability and instability and motivates changes in the system. Transduction is the cumulative process of individuation in which systems change structure and organization to maintain operational coherence with their surroundings.
Originality/value
The concepts the paper identifies can serve as a starting point for an extended study on the ontology of cybernetics or as the basis for an evolutionary epistemology both in humans and machines.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
I thank the support of PhD Jon Walker by guiding and motivating my research during my PhD studies.
I also thank PhD William Rojas at the Universidad del Valle for his support during my studies, and PhD Miguel Urrutia at Universidad de Chile for.
I also thank the blind peer reviewers who contributed voluntarily to the improvement of this paper.
Citation
Osejo-Bucheli, C. (2024), "Towards a unified ontology of cybernetics: bridging mechanology and CAS for cooperative societies through thematic synthesis", Kybernetes, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/K-03-2024-0553
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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