Participant: Magnus Ramage
Format: Presentation and Conversation
Themes: paradigm, praxis

In previous work, I have explored the history of cybernetics through an analysis of the way two of its pioneers (Norbert Wiener and Gregory Bateson) handled the key concept of information. I have suggested that Wiener and Bateson represent quite different paradigms in their treatment of information. In this paper, I will extend the analysis of the history of cybernetics viewed through the lens of information, and suggest (in line with other work on the interdisciplinary concept of information) that multiple paradigms can be observed in the treatment of information within cybernetics.

This analysis will be conducted through examining the approach to information of a number of authors, including Niklas Luhmann, Ross Ashby, Stafford Beer and Heinz von Foerster among others, and suggest that have they each have quite distinct views of information, separate from those of either Wiener or Bateson. My analysis will include the distinctive understanding of information within second-order cybernetics.

Information is of considerable theoretical interest within a range of disciplines (both those shaped by cybernetics and many others) but it is also of great practical impact. Therefore as well as examining the theoretical paradigms of information, I shall also look at the praxis of information as impacted by cybernetics, and the way that can aid our understanding of these paradigms. Cybernetic treatments of information have had an impact in fields as distinct as robotics, artificial intelligence, digital communications, information systems, psychotherapy, and management science. By looking at the understanding of information in each of these fields, I will seek to deepen a sense of the relationship between information theory and information praxis.