Skip to main content
Log in

Cybernetics and suprahuman autopoietic systems

  • Papers
  • Published:
Systems practice Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Several streams of cybernetic thinking lead to the notion that there may exist systems of a higher logical order than that of manmade organisation. Such systems would be autopoietic and, in principle, beyond human control. Man and his institutions would be but components of such systems. The accelerated growth of institutions and the connections between them facilitated by the IT revolution makes the realization of such systems more probable at this time. The implications for systems practice are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ashby, W. R. (1952).Design for a Brain, Chapman and Hall, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner, T., Burns, T. R., and De Ville, P. (1978). The dialectics of social action and system structuring. In Geyer, R. F., and Van der Zouwen, J. (eds.),Sociocybernetics, Martinus Nijhoff, Lieden, pp. 27–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer, S. (1975).Platform for Change, John Wiley & Sons, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer, S. (1979).The Heart of the Enterprise, John Wiley & Sons, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer, S. (1980). Preface to autopoiesis: The organisation of the living. In Maturana, H. R., and Varela, F. J. (eds.),Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realisation of the Living, D. Reidel, Dortrecht, pp. 63–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beer, S. (1985).Diagnosing the System, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ben Eli, M. U. (1981). Self-organization, autopoiesis and evolution. In Zeleny, M. (ed.),Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organisation, North-Holland, Oxford and New York, pp. 169–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braten, S. S. (1986). The third position; beyond artificial and autopoietic reduction. In Geyer, F., and Van der Zouwen, J. (eds.),Sociocybernetic Paradoxes, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA, pp. 193–205.

    Google Scholar 

  • Checkland, P. (1987). Address to the 31st Annual Meeting of the International Society for General Systems Research, Budapest, Hungary.

  • Conant, R., and Ashby, W. R. (1970). Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system.Int. J. Syst. Sci. 1(2), 89–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, P. (1987).The Cosmic Blueprint, Hienemann, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durkin, J. E. (1980). The structure of autonomy boundarying in living groups. In Banathy, B. H. (ed.),Systems Science and Science, Society for General Systems Research, Louisville, KY, pp. 634–645.

    Google Scholar 

  • Espejo, R. (1987). Cybernetic method to study organisations. InProceedings of the 31st Annual Meeting of the International Society for General Systems Research, Budapest, Hungary, Vol. 1, pp. 323–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flood, R. L., and Robinson, S. A. (1989). Analogy and metaphor in systems and sybernetic methodology.Cybernet. Syst. 20(1) (in press).

  • Francois, C. (1987). Consequences of Godel's theorem for the metasystemic paradigm. In Van Gigch, J. P. (ed.),Decision Making About Decision Making, Abacus Press, Tunbridge Wells, England, and Cambridge, MA, pp. 67–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, F. H. (1970). Cybernetics and industry. In Rose, J. (ed.),Progress in Cybernetics, Proceedings of the First International Congress of Cybernetics, London, 1969, Gordon and Breach, London, pp. 113–215.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gorelik, G. (1975). Principal ideas of Bogdanov's tektology. In Rapaport, A. (ed.),General Systems, XX, pp. 3–13.

  • Hacking, I. (1981). Lakatos's philosophy of science. In Hacking, I. (ed.),Scientific Revolutions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 128–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hume, D. (1739). Of the skeptical and other systems of philosophy. Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part iv, Sect. ii. In Flew, A. (ed.) (1962).David Hume: On Human Nature and Understanding, Collier Macmillan, London, pp. 219–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, M. C. (1987). New directions in management science. In Jackson, M. C., and Keys, P. (eds.),New Directions in Management Science, Gower, Aldershot, England, pp. 133–164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, M. C., and Keys, P. (1984). Towards a system of system methodologies.J. Operat. Res. Soc. 35, 473–486.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kauffman, S. A. (1984). Emergent properties in random complex automata.Physica 10D, 145–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. S. (1970).The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago, University Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuhn, T. S. (1981). A function for thought experiments. In Hacking, I. (ed.),Scientific Revolutions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 6–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luhman, N. (1986). The autopoiesis of social systems. In Geyer, F., and Van der Zouwen, J. (eds.),Sociocybernetic Paradoxes, Sage, Beverley Hills, CA, pp. 172–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maruyama, M. (1963). The second cybernetics: Deviation-amplifying mutual causal processes.Am. Sci. 51, 164–179, 250–256.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maruyama, M. (1980). Mindscapes and science theories.Curr. Anthropol. 21, 589–599. [Reprinted in Ragade, R. K. (ed.),General Systems, XXVI, pp. 41–60.]

    Google Scholar 

  • Maruyama, M. (1987). Communication between mindscape types. In Van Gigch, J. P. (ed.),Decision Making About Decision Making, Abacus Press, Tunbridge Wells, England, and Cambridge, MA, pp. 79–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H. R. (1981). Autopoiesis. In Zeleny, M. (ed.),Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organisation, North-Holland, New York and Oxford, pp. 21–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H. R., and Varela, F. J. (1975). Autopoietic systems: A characterisation of the living organisation.Biological Computer Laboratory Report 9.4, University of Illinois, Urbana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana, H. R., and Varela, F. J. (1980).Autopoiesis: The Organisation of the Living, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Boston, and London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. G. (1965). Living systems; Basic concepts.Behav. Sci. 10, 193–237.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. G. (1978).Living Systems, McGraw-Hill, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. G. (1986). Can systems theory generate testable hypotheses? from Talcott Parsons to living systems theory.Syst. Res. 3(2), 73–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirham, D., and Mirham, G. A. (1985). The chronology of the etymology of “cybernetics.”Syst. Res. 2(2), 165–167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1960).An Approach to Cybernetics, Hutchinson, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1970). Cybernetics in the behavioural sciences; The cybernetics of behaviour and cognition, extending the meaning of “goal.” In Rose, J. (ed.),Progress in Cybernetics. Proceedings of the First International Congress of Cybernetics, London, 1969, Gordon and Breach, London, pp. 15–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1978). A conversation theoretic approach to social systems. In Geyer, R. F., and Van der Zouwen, J. (eds.),Sociocybernetics, Martinus Nijhoff, Lieden, Boston, and London, pp. 15–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1980). The limits of togetherness. In Lavington, S. H. (ed.),Information Processing, North-Holland, Amsterdam, pp. 999–1012. (Reprinted in Ragade, R. (ed.),General Systems, XXV, pp. 144–157.)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1981). Organisational closure of potentially conscious systems. In Zeleny, M. (ed.),Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organisation, North-Holland, Oxford and New York, pp. 265–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G., Scott, B. C. E., and Kalliourdis, D. (1973). A theory of conversations and individuals; exemplified by the learning process on CASTE.Int. J. Man-Machine Stud. 5, 443–566.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrow, C. (1984).Normal Accidents; Living with High-Risk Technologies, Basic Books, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. (1972).Conjectures and Refutations, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, I. (1980).From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences, Freeman, San Francisco.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, F. F. (1985a). Towards a “better” scientific theory of human organisations.J. Operat. Res. Soc. 36(6), 433–466.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, F. F. (1985b). Thought experiments on human activity systems. InProceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Society for General Systems Research, Los Angeles, pp. 914–917.

  • Robb, F. F. (1987). MIS: A distorting lens? Paper to the 29th Annual Conference of the Operational Research Society, Edinburgh.

  • Robb, F. F., and Brown, T. A. (1987a). The machine intelligence family.Account. Mag. 91(971), 50–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, F. F., and Brown, T. A. (1987b). The accountant and the intelligent machine.Account. Mag. 91(972), 38–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, R. (1986).Anticipatory Systems, Pergamon, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Russell, B. (1946).A History of Western Philosophy, George Allan and Unwin, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, G. (1987).Eco-Computer, John Wiley, Chichester, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thom, R. (1975).Structural Stability and Morphogenesis, Benjamin, Reading, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tinker, T. (1986). Metaphor or reification: Are radical humanists really libertarian anarchists?J. Man. Sci. 23(4), 363–383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tritton, D. J. (1986). Ordered and chaotic motion of a forced spherical pendulum.Eur. J. Phys. 7, 162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Troncale, L. (1985). The future of general systems research; Obstacles, potentials and case studies.Syst. Res. 2(1), 43–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Gigch, J. P. (1987). The metasystem, rationalities and information. In Van Gigch, J. P. (ed.),Decision Making About Decision Making, Abacus Press, Tunbridge Wells, England, and Cambridge, MA, pp. 227–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varela, F. J. (1981). Describing the logic of the living. In Zeleny, M. (ed.),Autopoiesis: A Theory of Living Organisation, North-Holland, New York and Oxford, pp. 36–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warfield, J. M. (1982). Organisations and systems learning. In Warfield, J. M. (ed.),General Systems, XXVII, pp. 5–74.

  • Weick, K. E. (1979).The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd ed., Random House, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, N. (1948).Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and in the Machine, Wiley, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, N. (1949).Interpolation, Extrapolation and Smoothing of Stationary Time Series with Engineering Applications, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wise, J. A., and Debons, A. (1987).Information Systems Failure Analysis, Springer-Verlag, Heidleberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L. (1945). Philosophical investigations I, 43. In Anscombe, G. E. M., Rhees, R., and von Wright, G. H. (eds.), Anscombe, G. E. M. (trans.),Ludwig Wittgenstein (1967), 3rd ed. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Robb, F.F. Cybernetics and suprahuman autopoietic systems. Systems Practice 2, 47–74 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061617

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01061617

Key words

Navigation