Cybernetic-Systems Discourses

Focus

Inquiring into the internal dynamics of adaptive, self-maintaining systems

Principal Metaphors

  • Knowledge is … current range of functional possibilities
  • Knowing is … acting/responding appropriately
  • Learner is … adaptive system
  • Learning is … adapting, changing
  • Teaching is … triggering

Originated

1940s

Synopsis

Cybernetic-Systems Discourses are concerned with the means by which elements of adaptive, self-maintaining systems communicate, coordinate, and co-regulate. Such systems can be organic, mechanical, or a combination. Associated discourses include:
  • Cybernetic Epistemology – a philosophical engagement with matters associated with knowledge, meaning, learning, and learners that emerge in the context of more-than-human cybernetic systems.
  • Informatics (K.K. Kolin, 1990s) – a term with multiple meanings – but, in the context of discourses on learning, refers to a blending of Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence. Informatics thus researches natural and artificial computational systems, both examining and seeking to influence their structures, algorithms, behaviors, and interactions.
  • Technium (Kevin Kelly, 2010s) – the system of technologies and technological evolution as a whole, including all tools, machines, and systems created by humans. It is characterized as an emerging, self-organizing entity that behaves much like a living organism.

Commentary

One of the struggles faced by modern science has been to define “life.” For centuries, the prevailing strategy was to list necessary criteria (e.g., a living form must metabolize, must have some form of locomotion, and must respond to stimuli) – an approach that inevitably included some non-living forms while excluding some living forms. In the 1900s, Cybernetic-Systems Discourses was part of a movement toward another strategy, essentially defining living in terms of learning – that is, as dynamic and adaptive co-participation with/in other forms.

Subdiscourses:

  • Cybernetic Epistemology
  • Informatics
  • Technium

Map Location



Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2025). “Cybernetic-Systems Discourses” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.


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