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De Profundis. Ranulph Glanville's Approach to Second De profundis. Ranulph Glanville‘s Approach to Second-Order Cybernetics Karl H. Müller Steinbeis Transfer Center New Cybernetics Orlando, July 13, 2015 Overview Ranulph Glanville (1946 – 2014) The German Hall of Fame of Radical Constructivism and the Exclusion of Ranulph Glanville The Transcendental Foundations of Ranulph Glanville‘s Framework: The Internet of Objects The Internet of „Black Booxes“ The Legacy Ranulph Glanville, 1946 - 2014 President of the American Society for Cy- bernetics (2009 - 2014) Professor for Innovation Design, Royal College of Art, London Professor for Research Design, Catholic Uni- versity of Leuven The German Hall of Fame of Radical Costructivism 1974 Ernst von Glasersfeld: Jean Piaget as a Radical Constructivist 1987: S.J. Schmidt (ed.): The Discourse of Radical Constructivism Heinz von Foerster, Ernst von Glasersfeld, Humberto R. Maturana, Francisco J. Varela, Niklas Luhmann, Germans, etc. Excluded Jean Piaget, Gordon Pask and His Group (Ranulph Glanville, Bernard Scott) The Basic Organization of the Three Black Booxes Volume I Cybernetics (Second-Order Cybernetics) Objects Black Box Distinction | Variety Volume II Explorations Design | Representation (Language) Knowing | Education Others (Richard Jung, Gordon Pask, Heinz von Foerster, Ernst von Glasers- feld, Gerard de Zeeuw, etc. Volume III 39 Steps: Cybernetic Musings in “Cybernetics and Human Knowing” Ranulph Glanville‘s Approach: Approximation I: Goals My work might be thought of as a generalization of the work of others. (Glanville, 2012:192) Many of us watch games. Some play, others umpire or referee. Still others govern games and make/remake the rules. There are some who create the field of play, mark and maintain it. The potential (Gibson’s affordance) is not however, limited to games: others may use the ground in a completely unanticipated way, unintended by those who set up the ground. Behind all these is the person who creates the possibility of the blank field on which all this potential can be expected. That person is me, and that is my work: I create the unformed, empty field. (Glanville, 2012:35) Cybernetics is often considered a meta-field. The Cybernetics of Cybernetics is, thus, a meta-meta-field. My work is, therefore, a meta- meta-meta-field. (Glanville, 2012:192) Ranulph Glanville‘s Approach: Approximations II & III Volume I: Cybernetic Circles Volume II: Living in Cybernetic Circles Action -Reflection Cycles A View from Within; Endo-Mode I as Part of the World, Design, Operation, etc . Ranulph Glanville‘s Approach: The Cybernetician‘s Cybernetician I Objects NOT: Refrigerators, Notebooks, Chairs ….. BUT: Units with the Ability to Observe Others and Observe Themselves (In the History of Philosophy: Leibniz’ Monadology as a Variant) First Principle: Principle of Mutual Reciprocity To enter into a universe of observation, I must observe myself. If I substitute the word know for observe, the form of the answer is the same: I know myself. I generalised this formulation to all inhabitants of the universe (of observing): they must all be assumed to observe themselves. There is no way to test this; it is simply a condition for entry into the universe – an assumption or axiom of this system of understanding. (Glanville, 2012:40 – 41) Internet of Objects Ranulph Glanville‘s Approach: The Cybernetician‘s Cybernetician II Black Boxes The Black Box becomes “the universal model for how we come to construct our understanding through which we name the world” (Glanville, 2012:42p.) The patterns which can be generated with the Black Box only exist „as an explanation created by the experimenter: an explanation that is of a non-existent box, with no inside or outside, imagined into place by the experimenter. What’s in it can’t be examined because there is no box! (Glanville, 2012:42) The Internet of Black Boxes The Legacy The Black Boox, three volumes (edition echoraum, Vienna) An Encyclopedia of Second-Order Cybernetics for Designers, Architects , Social Scientists , Linguists , Musicians, Philosophers, Computer and Information Scientists, etc. An enormous playfield of playfields to play Ranulph Glanville as the Tragic Hero of Second-Order Cybernetics Contact: Karl H. Müller Steinbeis Transfer Center New Cybernetics Vienna, Austria [email protected] 0043 1 664 4191961.
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