comments about the PCP home page
Jeff Prideaux (JPRIDEAUX@GEMS.VCU.EDU)
Thu, 19 Oct 1995 08:52:56 -0400
Upon scanning through the PCP home page (which is quite impressive!!!) I
noticed that there doesn't seem to be any mention of second-order-
cybernetics or (SOC). SOC takes a constructivist stance and challenges
traditional notions of objectivity (traditional objectivity relies on a passive
observer). Was the lack of reference to SOC on PCP an oversight on my part
(it is there but I didn't see it) or is it the current position of PCP not to
include such (speculative) ideas on the official home page? Or does the PCP
home page not make a distinction between regular cybernetics and second-order
cybernetics? (where it is all part of one big package called cybernetics)???
Would it be fair to say that regular cybernetics is in line with computable
engineering control theory (for example feed-back systems)...and SOC would
be representative of a non-computable paradigm shifting idea? If so, then it
would seem to be important to make a clear distinction between them (to
make clear what first principles each are grounded in....the philosophical
foundations)... Or is it impossible to separate out the ideas?
Jeff Prideaux