Second Order Cybernetics

The observer makes a difference...

A significant problem with first order cybernetics is that it assumed that some systems are 'closed'.
This black box approach is now discredited, because nothing is totally isolated.
Heinz von Foerster saw that first order cybernetics also, therefore, ignored the role of the observer.
He described a Second Order Cybernetics, saying that it is a "cybernetics of cybernetics." (Von Foerster, 1991)
His understanding of this idea is inclusive of what we now call Third and Fourth Order Cybernetics.
This acknowledges that whole systems (not just parts) can change whilst they are being used. See his webpage.

The thermostatic control system was depicted as a first order system (i.e. as totally independent from its surroundings, therefore impervious to an observer).
This model tended to acknowledge only negative feedback and its compensatation for deviations from the target.
Even a Black Hole is not a black box, because it has (at least) a gravitational relationship with its neighbours.
The 'observer' could be the system designer or someone who adjusts the thermostat.
It could even be someone who doubts whether the thermostat is working and makes a comment.
Second order cybernetics therefore raises important issues of an ethical nature.