INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS FOR A
VIABLE WORLD
Proposal for a Feasibility Study
Bruce Buchanan
Presentation to the 14th World Congress of Sociology,
Montreal, Canada, July 26 - August 1, 1998.
WORKING GROUP ON SOCIOCYBERNETICS AND SOCIAL SYSTEMS (WGO1)
Session 2: Sociocybernetics and Human Values (Chair: B. Buchanan)
Paper #2.4 - Information Requirements for a Viable World.
ABSTRACT
I. BACKGROUND:
1.1 A Perspective on Societal Problems:
1.2 Rationality and Power
1.3 Holistic Approaches:
1.4 Conceptual Requirements
1.5 A Note on Method:
1.6 Design Requirements
1.7 Strategic Desiderata:
II. PROPOSAL:
2.1 Rationale:
2.2 Distinctive Features:
2.3 System Perspectives:
2.4 Objectives and Methods:
2.5 Strategic Considerations:
2.6 Further Development:
REFERENCES__________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT:
Sociocybernetics entails participation as well as observation, and this paper presents a proposal for an experimental project.
Almost all current sources of public information serve specialized interests and/or corporate sponsors. Yet many real problems, involving as they do complex and indeed global systems, require more comprehensive and integrated approaches for their societal management. Such problems include the ecological requirements for sustainable development.
All living systems need brains, to manage variety and uncertainty, to increase freedom for adaptive responses. Societies as wholes (as supersystems) require adequately organized and integrated communication structures and processes, and relevant feedback to give direction to values of common benefit.
Current efforts to deal with problems of world order and sustainable development lack adequate overall coordination and focus, which no single agency or partial function can provide. An integrative approach to
governance is needed that does not depend ultimately upon personal charisma or arbitrary powers. The task is to structure a societal information system accessible to the most pressing issues as these change over time, and guided by values of free inquiry and responsibility.
This proposal presents some background and theoretical considerations for involving social groups and profess- ionals in ongoing assessments of high priority societal problems, strategies and tasks. As such it would structure and draw upon constellations of informed individuals in flexible networks, utlizing modern technologies, changing over time, and designed for continuing relevance. It would be intended to appeal to public opinion over the heads of governments and corporate interests. Perceived authority would depend upon process and performance, not upon any individuals or groups per se.
This proposal, and a report on initiatives and responses to date, is presented to elicit relevant critical commentary.
"Is there socially-located truth that is useful, and has at the same time some basis
of credibility beyond the assertions of the author? That is, can there be truth that
is collectively validated and controlled but beyond the imperative claims of the current
participants in the immediate political battles? And if so, how may we arrive at it?"
(Immanuel Wallerstein) (1)
"The greatest unrecognized resource at this time is the vast uncharted network of
organizations of every kind, with every kind of preoccupation and with every degree of
effectiveness. It is not known either what this network could achieve if its processes
were facilitated, or what is the nature of its synergistic potential" ( Anthony
Judge) (2)
I. BACKGROUND:
1.1 A Perspective on Societal Problems:
There is an immense variety of problems which engage the attention of social and
environmental activists. And average citizens are increasingly aware that the institutions
and people who are supposed to be responsible for the quality and security of the present
and future of society are not performing adequately. A full discussion of the causes of
this complex situation is not possible in this space, nor is exhaustive study of detail
necessary for possible strategies.
A major premise of this paper is that piecemeal approaches are a part of the overall
problem. Programs which are narrowly targetted, with a focus on issues in isolation,
certainly have their contributions to make, but many go astray by repeating past mistakes
and would be more effective within a better informed and supportive context. Given the
problems, unconventional approaches are worth careful consideration.
Existing arrangements for public education and information have many serious limitations,
although these are far from obvious to those who work within them. There are many problems
of timely availability of relevant and accurate information, as required for an effective
democracy.
* Business and governments are inevitably engaged in information management for their own
ends. Information is too often intended to mislead. Observers from both within and outside
this system recognize the need for improved performance
* Many politicians tend to take a short term view, limited by considerations which may
help them win the next election.
* The short term view and narrow focus is also reflected in reliance on inadequate
concepts and models, notably in the field of economics.
* The financial community, driven by money, does not adequately reflect larger realities
and so does violence to the complexities of the human and natural worlds.
* News media have a variety of agendas and must continually balance the demands of
advertisers and owners who may have their own private agendas.
In all of these cases the problems are systemic and the major actors are limited in their
perception and action to their positions in the system, often unaware of the complexities
involved, or of why the solutions they see as obvious may be ineffective, and not accepted
by others.
The complexity of the problems, their interdependencies, the scale of consequences, and
the limited time available to deal with perceived trends all place special demands upon
any proposed approaches.
There have been a great many attempts to develop institutions (the UN and many others) to
deal with global issue. Many have failed because they have relied upon currently accepted
paradigms - the very institutional forms, management systems and tools contributing to the
problems.
Such problems may be characterized at many levels, which are mutually reinforcing and
require a cybernetic approach for adequate understanding. From a systemic problem-solving
perspective, a diagnostician may observe that the patient - which is civilized society -
has many specific problems, but is also greatly encumbered by inadequacies of perception,
and in deficiencies of knowledge and evaluative or interpretive capacities. Moreover, the
capacities which might otherwise be available are often neutralized by excessive noise and
blocked by the lack of adequate training and experience in dealing with all the varied
challenges.
Among the problems is a lack of functional literacy among citizens, a literacy which
requires some shared back- ground of knowledge. There are few agenncies in society which
take account of these lacks, and many which
exploit them.
These comments merely skim the surface in pointing to the many systemic problems which
reinforce the difficulties. To add to the problems, some people see arbitrary demands and
actions, including the use of force, as
avenues of possible solution. A more basic need is for alternative kinds of social power.
So the larger problem looms, and the question may be asked: What kind of overall approach
to such complex problems may be possible?
1.2 Rationality and Power:
An emphasis on rationality alone as the normative springs of action does not take account
of how power works in societies. In fact, an exclusive reliance on reason simply
aggravates the problems. The first step is to ensure an adequate understanding of power.
What kinds of reason and motivations are at work with those who govern? Religious
thinkers, existential philosophers and systems thinkers have all illuminated these issues
in different ways, but come up with very similar
answers. In a recent study on Rationality and Power, Bent Flyvbjerg (3) provides some
principles that summarize major practical lessons for democracy.
Institutions that are supposed to represent the public interest are in fact deeply
embedded in the exercise of hidden powers and the protection of special interests. This is
the normal state, and may not be news to most
readers, but these problems are to be expected and strategies must take them into account.
Moreover, the powers-that-be also can often determine what counts as relevant knowledge,
and what kinds of interpretation attain authority. Such power procures the knowledge which
supports its purposes, and ignores what does not.
Flyvbjerg enunciates several propositions relevant to our tasks. Each may have some
exceptions, which it will be in the interests of democratic processes to exploit. These
propositions include:
* Power defines reality rather than discovering what reality is. In this way power
defines what counts as rationality, knowledge and reality.
* Rationality is context-dependent. When the context of rationality is power,
rationalization dominates. Rationality becomes a product of action.
* Rationalization presented as rationality is a principal strategy.
* The greater the power, the less the rationality. The greater the power, the less need
for power to understand the actual realities.
Yet, those in power can be vulnerable when they fail to maintain the required
competencies, to produce the results on which their powers depend. Lessons and inferences
relevant to the purposes of this proposal include the following.
* There are objective realities, and freedom to rationalize is neither universal,
inevitable nor unlimited. Not all activities are based upon rationalizations, so power
structures are vulnerable when badly informed.
* Rational argument is a form of power, but may require that issues be forced in some way.
Without pressures of some kind, rational arguments alone will not suffice to change
perceptions of reality.
* Power tends to make its possessors inadequate over time. It reduces seriousness and
tends to marginalize the effective use of the intellect.
* The desire of those in power to avoid confrontations when possible, and/or to reach
stable power relations, can point ways to revised policies.
* Attempted interventions which are intellectually discursive, detached, dependent upon
consensus and rationality are not likely to be successful.
* Effective reforms need to emphasize participation, transparency, and responsibility.
Effective reformers are practical, committed and prepared for conflict, in such ways
accepting the realities of power and conflict.
The present proposal seeks a grounding in such objective realities, and recognizes that
these include the kinds of self-confirming structures of power and belief that blindly
resist change. It is also the case that real power and influence must be earned or it will
not be accepted or allowed to operate effectively. Values and strategies must therefore
meet such requirements.
1.3 Holistic Approaches:
Clearly no piecemeal approach to particular problems will meet these requirements. So the
first requirement is to identify a methodology that is adequate for conceptualizing the
problems in their real relationships. This demands a frame of reference which includes all
relevant factors, a system of the global whole, within which parts can be considered in
their mutual relationships.
A system can and must be studied at its own level of functions and relationships. In
relation to human inventions, few of the adjustments required for successful operation can
be predicted without experimentation. Parts cannot be fitted into an effective and
efficient total system without a governing concept of a whole which provides the
appropriate criteria for the parts in their places, and without a clear concept of
governing purposes.
The needed approach will take into account the motivations of human observers, economic
and political realities, and the systems of study and disciplines in terms of which
specific problems have ordinarily been described.
The problems and possible solutions involve human attitudes and interests grounded in
realities of human life and the world. The tasks involve attitudes and values in relation
to concrete problems and issues. So the need is for practical strategies for initiating
and fostering constructive processes, rather than merely intellectual solutions.
In view of the immense complexities, and the grounds of the problems in human attitudes
and interests, we also need to consider a phased approach which allows for tentative
formulations, feedback, tests and the possibility of consolidated, progressive advance.
Discussions must be built upon points of solid agreement.
The assumption is sometimes made that large and complex systems can be best understood by
analysis of their parts so that a more detailed picture of the whole can be built up from
these. That is not the approach which will
be advocated here. A systems approach is needed in which the system of interest must be
considered at its own level. Different systems - human, social, ecological, economic,
political - can be considered in their own ways.. Attention can also be directed
specifically at the world system - the conceptual supersystem within which all other
systems may be seen as relative and understood to that extent.
This highest integrating level of attention and problem description is involved in what
has become known as the world Problematique. This is the level of focus necessary to deal
with the component problems.
The specific focus of this paper is on strategic prerequisites for a sustainable world.
Any such strategy requires a focus or purpose, informed and supported by the appropriate
information. The primary question is thus: What are the information requirements for a
viable world? By what means may it be possible to capture and communicate the information
required to the key decision-makers in a manner that will make likely its appropriate
utilization?
What are the structural conditions and relationships required to maintain such a project
successfully over time?
Our purpose here is a first cut at these questions. The issues are very complex, and
debate is needed before deciding upon and implementing the experiments which will be
required to test the ideas. Since this is a feasibility and design phase, premature
attempts at action are not part of this proposal.
1.4 Conceptual Requirements
The focus of this paper is on an information and guidance system designed in accordance
with values which reflect human needs. For this it is essential to look beyond rhetoric
and examine the operational meaning of the values which guide choices.
We live in a time of increasing knowledge and also growing social fragmentation which
require new and improved information mechanisms.
>From a philosophical perspective, one possible approach may assume that the action to
be taken is one that will be externally imposed and rationally controlled, in the hope
that superior knowledge may be enough to influence
and perhaps change the world. This is the approach which appears to be taken by many
scientists.
The assumption involved in the present proposal, on the contrary, is that human beings are
fallible in their percep- tion and limited in power of foresight and consequences of
action, that they are participants in systems whose boundaries lie beyond their knowledge
at any time. Change unfolds in ways which can only be anticipated in part. The future is
an idea which lies within the present, perhaps a guiding idea but fraught with
uncertainties. The way forward can only be guided in relation to values by feedback and
error-correction.
Processes of perception must be open to all possibilities. Items which most need attention
require careful discrimination and selection. The practical problems of selecting
priorities for attention and consideration, and
selecting strategies for action, are inevitable under any circumstances. The choice we
have is whether or not the systems through which we process the relevant information are
adequate to the tasks. The question is not one
of whether to priorize attention and action but whether to do so consciously.
1.5 A Note on Method:
In view of the complexity of the Problematique, it is clear that special methods of
approach to processes of solution are needed. In this regard there are considerations
worth specific attention related to holistic strategies..
Any system, in its most basic features, is an abstract representation of selected elements
of the real world. A system is a conscious (ref)construction, based upon perception and
fact, but organized by conscious purposes to illuminate particular relationships. Newton's
laws of motion and of gravitation describe facts of nature, but carefully select and order
exactly the particular facts which they describe.
Descriptions of psychological and social systems are also undertaken at their own level.
The phenomena to which they attend are at the level of mental events and social processes
respectively. There is no assumption that these need to be explained reductively in terms
of chemistry and physics, although obviously such relationships can be usefully explored.
But they are not to be understood by reducing them to something else.
What are the information requirements for sustainable human and societal existence at the
world level? An approach to this question may begin by considering the elements and
components which may be necessary to model the key phenomena at their own level of
relevance. Such a "world system" will reflect the dynamics required to sustain
any complex system - dynamic interactions and feedbacks in nature as well as human
interventions for better or worse. In any case, dynamic stability will require mechanisms
for adaptation to change and circumstances, whether from within, in the forms of new
technologies and/or problems, of from without, as environmental changes may come
about.
In approaching the question of information requirements for a sustainable world we must
make use of all relevant information, and may need to seek out key data not readily on
offer. Obviously, if we are not to be drowned in noise, selection and criteria are vital.
But this is not enough. It is also necessary to consider possible futures, and the values
in terms of which we may wish to direct trends and shape outcomes.
1.6 Design requirements
The focus of this paper will be on the possibility of an information and guidance system
designed in accordance with values which reflect human needs, which entail operational
requirements for support systems for a viable and sustainable civilization. For this it is
essential to look beyond rhetoric and examine the operational meaning of the values which
guide choices.(4)
What are at stake are no more and no less than adaptive decisions required to solve the
whole range of human problems, to sustain and extend the possibilities for a civilized
existence. Systems models adequate to the
complexities are required.
The highest value perhaps belongs to adequate processes of valuing, ethical choices with
existential consequences for men and women in the world. One of the overriding challenges
of human life is the seeking of necessary compromises, of higher level grounds within
which lower level conflicts may be resolved. The search for an adequate accommodation
(e.g. win-win solution) is a creative process, and this cannot occur if arbitrary
constraints are imposed upon possible solutions.
While it is usually recognized that most professions may require some years of study to
master the basics, it is often imagined that the most difficult of complex problems should
be easily grasped in simple language. This
requirement effectively blocks any serious work on real solutions. An effective holistic
approach requires a certain detachment from particular problems and the motivations they
provide, as well as capacities for abstraction and creativity as to methods.
We not only need to find answers to specific problems. We need to be able to adapt our
methods to a range of problems, and to the early detection, management and mitigation of
problems which have not yet appeared.
Moreover, in dealing with complex real world problems, no definitive or intellectually
complete answers may be possible for many of our most pressing questions. We may then look
for strategies of on-going management
1.7 Strategic Desiderata
Perhaps of prime importance is a strategic idea that offers some novelty, that is adequate
to the complexities of the problems, and that has not been tried many times and found
wanting.
Major difficulties confronting this kind attempt are inadequacies in knowledge of previous
efforts and possible failure to learn from the experiences of others. In the Global
Strategies Project, prepared by Anthony Judge as an adjunct study to the Encyclopaedia of
World Problems and Human Potential, published by the Union of International Associations
(2), a number of strategic considerations are discussed in some detail. These include:
* a need to clarify and agree on working assumptions, and a provisional vision adequately
grounded in enduring human values (which can be specified).
* strategic recognition of factors of psychological resistance and in the opposition of
vested interests e.g.in interpretations of information.
* recognition that a changing environment and turbulent world require flexible strategies
and objectives.
* understanding of the limitations of an exclusively rational approach based only upon
reason, analysis and forecasting.
* recognition of the needs for feedback and evaluative criteria, with regular review at
all levels of organization and complexity, for alternation of open and closed system
phases.
* perception of possible need for new social structures, with avoidance of traditional
concepts e.g. of value assumptions, elitism.
* need for incentives to promote cooperative and integrative approaches to common
objectives.
* requirements to accommodate and reconcile diversity and oppositions within supportive
structures
* recognize the limitations of consensus, and the need for dynamic structure and
containment of tensions in relation to external and internal interests.
* requirements for structural and dynamic stability involving multifactor tensions, and
for adaptive learning over time.
* the need to confront, rather than deny, the challenges to comprehension that may be
required by the problems.
* attention directed not only to evident problems but also to strategic opportunities to
provide for more effective social structures and methods.
* an adequate initial study of previous strategies and reasons for failures.
next section: "Information Requirements for a Viable World" : I I . PROPOSAL