Seeing | Systems Theory | 2025-11-14 https://www.essentiafoundation.org/why-we-need-to-quit-fixing-the-world-a-cybernetic-approach-to-planetary-challenges/seeing/
Author Archives: antlerboy - Benjamin P Taylor
Sean Manion on LinkedIn – key pre-cybernetic paperThe Logical Structure of Mind: An Inquiry into the Philosophical Foundation of Psychology & Psychiatry, von Domarus (1934) – and talk Dec 4 at Duquesne University
Please go to LinkedIn link to comment/respond and see the von Domarus dissertation with McCullock intro
A key piece of cybernetics pre-history from the early 1930s.
“I know of no other text that so clearly sets forth the notions needed for an understanding of psychology, psychiatry and finite automata.” – McCulloch
A decade before writing the first artificial neural network paper with Walter Pitts (“A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity”, 1943), Warren McCulloch helped his friend and colleague finish and translate a dissertation in 1932 which McCulloch later noted, “… without which I would never have come to a definition of thinking that fits cybernetics.”
Eilhard von Domarus’ thesis, “The Logical Structure of Mind: An Inquiry into the Philosophical Foundation of Psychology & Psychiatry” (1934) doesn’t get the attention many other early manuscripts do wrt influencing machine intelligence. I’ve seen it only occasionally mentioned and not really covered in detail over the last several years as I have been diving into this history.
Having recently found gotten this republication of it with “belated introduction” by McCulloch (entitled “Lekton” which refers to “sense of meaning” in syllogistic logic), I think it should be read and shared more widely with those interested in these topics. It is a fun read.
Enjoy!
(h/t to the Duquesne library staff member who tracked this down for me on the NASA Technical Reports Server)
I’ll be touching on this and much more history (and future) in my upcoming talk, “Cybernetics, Phenomenology & Teleology” on Dec 4th at Duquesne University’s Simon Silverman Phenomenology Center, 4-6pm.
Continual new posts on the Scybernethics blog
[I never have time to read these but some do look very interesting]
Latest Posts (newest to oldest)
- Scybernethics: Blueprints for Collective Autonomy and Digital Democracy
- Power, Care and Democratic Enaction – A Scybernethics Proposal
- AI, Vulnerability, and Human Relationships
- AI, Enactment, and Democratic Self-Governance
- Epistemology of Modeling, Cognition, and Self-Understanding
- Your Mind Isn’t What You Think It Is: 4 Revelations from the Frontiers of Cognitive Science
Transduction – leading transformation – Issue #200
My weekly posts
Philip John Taylor, 1944-2025
My dad died last week, quite peacefully, after a long period of Alzheimer’s. We had had time to prepare (’anticipatory grief’, the social worker accurately diagnosed), and close family were all able to spend time with him in hospital. But of course it is never easy.
I wrote about him here, four years ago, when his memory was already bad, but at a time when he would not have been happy to acknowledge or have me say he had dementia – still, it was a sort of tribute. It also struck me how much we had in common, in ways I had rather conveniently not focused on, happy in my uniqueness 🙂
Post | LinkedIn
What would you do if you were waiting for an announcement in the spring or summer that would mean you *had* to turn your organisational world upside-down by next April?
Many councils have now hit ‘submit’ on their Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) proposals – or are about to. Now comes the awkward middle act: the long wait for a ministerial decision.
This is when confidence wobbles, readiness drifts, and the temptation grows to ‘wait and see’.
But this time counts. The councils that use it well – to test readiness, strengthen relationships, and line up the practical, no-regrets work (and, honestly, secure the support they need – where do you think you’re going to get a programme manager come April?) – will be the ones that hit the ground running when the decision lands.
That’s why we’ve designed a short Learning and Doing Series.
Not webinars or talking shops: each session mixes reflection with action, helping Members, officers, and partners stay aligned, visible, and credible through transition – ready to do the nearly impossible, and deliver post-Ministerial decision.
You’ll leave with real outputs – readiness heatmaps, assurance frameworks, shared leadership roadmaps – not just notes and good intentions.
Post | LinkedIn
Courses and events
Introducing the RedQuadrant Local Government Reorganisation hub
Local Government Reorganisation is coming fast. By April 2028, every new authority must be safe, legal, and fully operational. That means statutory officers secured, ICT cutovers rehearsed, services live, and residents experiencing seamless continuity. The RedQuadrant LGR Hub is the only model that guarantees readiness while embedding lasting capability. With a single accountable structure, governance at its core, and capability pillars across adults, children’s, SEND, ICT, finance, housing, and place, the Hub ensures no gaps, no surprises. Three outcomes, every time: Safe and legal on day one; Visible assurance and confidence in delivery; Future-ready capacity with transformation built in. Find out more now: https://www.redquadrant.com/lgrhub
Level 7 Systems Thinking Practitioner Apprenticeship
The new apprenticeship Leading and Commissioning for Outcomes in Complexity – Convening Systems Change can supercharge your career and transform your organisation. Fully funded Level 7 programme this year only! Real-world impact through applied systems thinking. For commissioners, system leaders, and systems change-makers. Forfurther information, see https://www.publicservicetransformation.org/level-7-apprenticeship-course-leading-and-commissioning-for-outcomes-in-complexity-convening-systems-change-free-webinar-on-20-august-2025-1230pm-uk-time/
Commissioning Compass: systems assessment for change
Our newly launched tool, the Commissioning Compass, helps you to assess your commissioning system and form an action plan for improvement. It’s available for free via our Teachable site – try it now! link.redquadrant.com/commissioningcompass
Next National Commissioning Academy
We’re building our cohort for the next national commissioning academy – our flagship commissioning programme from the PSTA. Register your interest now: https://link.redquadrant.com/nextacademy25
Things I shared on socials:
Waves 2024: Why complexity matters – Nora Bateson and Dave Snowden hosted by Sara Lindeman
This is the Day 1 opening session of Waves Forum for Changemakers 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. In this fireside chat with Nora Bateson, International Bateson Institute, and Dave Snowden, Cynefin Company, hosted by Sara Lindeman, Leapfrog, we explore what changemakers can learn from complexity science to better understand change in complex social systems.
Waves 2024: Why complexity matters
“Kamon”: Japan’s Family Crests
Japanese family crests known as kamon were first used by the aristocracy over a thousand years ago, but over time they were adopted by samurai, merchants, and many others. Today, there are thought to be between 20,000 and 25,000 in use.
“Kamon”: Japan’s Family Crests | Nippon.com
RC51 Sociocybernetics newsletter November 2025
Newsletter
Current Issue – 46 | Nov 2025 (View/Download)
Editor’s Introduction | Satoshi Iguchi
Letter from the President | Saburo Akahori
Essays Related to the 5th ISA Forum in Rabat
Report from the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025), Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco | Mugio Umemura
A Welcome Return: Reflections on RC51 at the 5th ISA Forum in Rabat | Andrew Mitchell
Reports and Announcements
Experiences and reflections of the RC51 Open Online Activity 2024 – 2025 | Raija Koskinen & Mikael Kivelä
Announcements
5th ISA Forum of Sociology, Program for sessions hosted by RC51 (Final version)
Please send your contribution for the Newsletter to: rc51newsletter@sociocybernetics.org
Cybernetics Society events
[These days I seem to miss lots of CybSoc and ASC and ISSS and even SCiO – so it goes – but this looks interesting and unusual]
Cybernetics Live
Tue 18th November 2025 1700-1900. Badlands Event Three: Eudaimonia
Join us for the third installment of our Badlands mini-series exploring technology for malignant purposes and cybernetic responses that might help. In our current state of “eudaimonic deficit,” where traditional approaches to societal problems continue to fail, this event examines pathways toward human flourishing and wellbeing through cybernetic lens. Our distinguished speakers bring decades of system-level expertise:
Giles Herdale will outline his national review of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), drawing from his extensive experience at the interface of technology, policing, data, ethics and policy-making from what the VSM would call ‘System Five’ perspective.
Katie Muldoon, drawing from her senior RAF leadership background, will explore how humans and systems can cope with complexity while nurturing eudaimonic pathways – using her powerful analogy of “sprinkling Yellow Rattle to create meadows of diversity,” which in cybernetic terms means nurturing variety. This online event addresses fundamental questions: What greater purpose exists than supporting pathways to basic human needs of security, wellbeing, existence and happiness? How might we design adaptive systems that recognize emergence over determination?
PLEASE REGISTER FOR THIS ZOOM MEETING
10 December 2025 1700-1900 Emergent Language and Systemic Understanding: AI Augmented Deliberations Through a Cybernetic Lens – Kevin Dye
March 2026 Risk and the VSM in the Australian Military – Ray Wilkes
Cybernetics and Systems Calendar
As a reminder, below are the links on our website below to the CybSoc calendar and also the Combined calendar including events by other Societies.
Enacting Cybernetics Journal
The link to the journal homepage is below, access is free please enjoy:
systems | complexity | cybernetics that amplifies the practice of teacher-pupil interactions?
On Blooski, Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social asks:
Have you ever come across systems thinking as being a useful reframing lens that amplifiies the practice of teacher pupil interations?
Give me a response with all relevant links but particularly Glanville’s cybernetic conversations etc – with links – concise, all in plain text no formatting or hyperlinks
Here’s my response – what else is useful?
Ranulph Glanville, ‘Conversation and design’ (clear on teachback and teaching as inherently conversational)
Click to access Conversation-and-Design.pdf
Pask’s conversation theory (foundational for learning-as-conversation)
https://monoskop.org/images/5/54/Pask_Gordon_Conversation_Theory_Applications_in_Education_and_Epistemology.pdf)
And a bunch of stuff about Formative assessment as feedback loops in a living system – e.g. Black and Wiliam, ‘Inside the black box’ (evidence that short feedback cycles raise attainment)
Click to access Black%20%26%20Wiliam%201998%20PDK.pdf
Bateson, levels of learning and double bind (why classroom context matters)
Conceptual histories and summaries –
https://openresearch.surrey.ac.uk/view/pdfCoverPage?download=true&filePid=13140358990002346&instCode=44SUR_INST
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Gregory-Bateson-on-deutero-learning-and-double-a-Visser/5a2f749c710a663dc9b1bf37a7aaa89696eeacc0)
Maturana and relational grounding for pedagogy – ‘Biology of love’ and implications for education as consensual coordination
Click to access biology-of-love.pdf
There’s also an interesting thread of systems thinking in whole-school practice, from the system dynamcis/Senge school – e.g. Senge et al., Schools that learn (fieldbook for applying systems thinking in schools)
https://systemdynamics.org/product/schools-that-learn/)
Overview: https://thesystemsthinker.com/schools-that-learn-context-and-engagement/)
The practical implications for teacher–pupil interactions are perhaps:
- Design learning as iterative conversations with explicit feedback and teachback (Pask, Glanville)
- Balance multiple feedback timescales: in-the-moment checks for understanding, lesson-level reflection, course-level redesign (Black & Wiliam, Laurillard)
- Attend to relationship and emotion as part of the system, not noise (Maturana)
- Watch for double binds and mismatched signals that block learning; design contexts that enable second-order learning about learning (Bateson)
- Treat the classroom as a complex adaptive system and prototype improvements with short learning cycles (Senge)
Complexity and Management Conference 5th-7th June 2026
Introducing Critical Systems Heuristics 2.0: A Third Boundary Extending CSH From Reflections on Critical Realism in Information Systems Research – Goede and Goede (2025)
Introducing Critical Systems Heuristics 2.0: A Third Boundary Extending CSH From Reflections on Critical Realism in Information Systems Research
Roelien Goede, Hendrik Goede
First published: 24 September 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3187
ABSTRACT
Poorly designed information systems compel employees to find workarounds for the system in order to do their work properly. However, such workarounds compromise the enforcement of organisational governance. In our sense-making of this specific phenomenon, we considered critical realism as a framework for understanding based on its adoption in the information systems research community. Traditionally, critical systems heuristics considers two boundaries: resources versus environment and involved versus affected. For a third boundary, we propose reflecting on the potential causal structures in organisations and possible feedback loops with a view to uncover more conditioned realities and to better understand the unintended consequences of activities of a system. We advocate complementarism at the methodological level, where all methods are applied from a critical ontological perspective, focusing on the totality of conditioned realities and giving a voice to the affected. We hope that our extension, CSH 2.0, can achieve even greater recognition and acceptance of the core tenets of critical systems heuristics, namely, the totality of conditioned realities, and the impact of unintended consequences on those affected but not involved in the planning of a system.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sres.3187
MEL 360: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning for Systems Change
They say:
MEL Tools and Guidance for Food Systems and Other Complex Contexts.
Supporting Practical Integration of Systems Thinking in Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)
Are you a development practitioner working at the project, program, or portfolio level? Are you just beginning your journey with Systems-Informed Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (Systems MEL)? You’re in the right place.
This website offers practical, accessible guidance to help you layer Systems MEL approaches onto your existing MEL practices—without discarding the tools you already know and use, like Results-Based Management (RBM) or traditional evaluation frameworks.
Systems Thinking and Strategy for Leaders | Mike Jones | OrgDev Podcast #23
3 Jun 2024 Org Dev Podcast
Systems Thinking and Strategy for Leaders : Join us for an insightful interview with Mike Jones, founder and director of LBI Consulting, as we dive into the world of systems thinking and strategy. In this conversation, Mike shares his expertise on how organisations can navigate complexity and build stronger, more resilient structures. Learn practical tips and strategies to align your organisation’s design, culture, and goals using systems thinking principles. Whether you’re a leader, HR professional, or someone interested in organisational development, this interview provides valuable insights to help you create better, more effective organisations.
Chris Mowles at the Complexity Lounge and 54 other videos
The Complexity Louge:
https://www.meetup.com/complexity-lounge/
Their YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@ComplexityLounge
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The Systemic Lives Podcast – YouTube and podcast feed, from Murmurations: Journal of Systemic Practice
ISSS 2000 Russ Ackoff:”On Misdirected Systems” read by Mike Jackson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k75BnFppdYM&t=423s
From the ISSS Digital youtube channel
Systems Community of Inquiry 
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