Minds in Chains: A Sociocybernetic Analysis of the Abrahamic Faiths

I address the troubling matter of ‘pathological belief systems’, which I have previously defined as those that ‘restrict the right of actors to interact’. In particular, I consider the tangled ‘Gordian’ knot of beliefs that constitute the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It is my belief that an analysis based on well-defined cybernetic principles can help cut through this knot and lay bare just what is pathological. The attraction of such an analysis is that it does not require one to pass judgements and ‘take sides’ with respect to the major controversies that divide the faiths. More generally, a properly formulated sociocybernetic analysis does not require one to pose any fundamental opposition between ‘science’ and ‘religion’. What the analysis does is help identify what are the key differences between ‘science’ and ‘religion’ as routes to knowledge and understanding, whilst noting that there are ‘undecidable questions’ about which an individual should be permitted to formulate her own beliefs without opposition or condemnation from others.&nbsp

On Messages

In this paper, I discuss the concept of a ‘message’ as applied to the different forms of communication: between man and machine, between machine and machine and between man and man. The term ‘message’ can refer to a relatively simple cause and effect interaction. An example is the transmission of a mechanical signal that, when decoded by a receiving system, triggers a standard response. It can also refer to the much more subtle and complex case where recipients construct meanings on the basis of the messages they receive. I contend that it is only in this latter case that we can properly refer to the interaction as a ‘conversation’. In the paper I present cybernetic models of these two usages. I relate the abstract discussion to current developments concerned with man-machine interaction and the development of a ‘global brain’

Sociocybernetic understandings of consciousness

The aim of this paper is to show how sociocybernetics can usefully combine biological, psychological and sociological concepts to provide conceptual clarification and insightful understandings of human consciousness. Following a brief discussion and critique of how the term “consciousness” is used in contemporary cognitive science, awareness and consciousness are characterised in cybernetic terms as the dynamics of self-organising, autopoietic systems and their interactions. Sociocybernetic models of conscious systems are presented and discussed. It is argued that in order to characterise human consciousness it is necessary to make a distinction between bio-mechanical systemic unities and psychosocial systemic unities. Reflexively, this gives rise to a second-order cybernetics in which the observer explains herself to herself. Finally, there is a discussion of how sociocybernetic understandings of consciousness can give guidance for how to create and sustain communities in which good will prevails.

Computer-based monitoring of global cardiovascular dynamics during acute pulmonary embolism and septic shock in swine

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Model-based diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism and septic shock in porcine trials

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Model-based cardiovascular monitoring of large pore hemofiltration during endotoxic shock in pigs

peer reviewe