William Reckmeyer: Cybernetics-Systemics for the 21st Century

Cybernetics-Systemics for the 21st Century
Building a Better Global World in the Anthropocene
Expectations about the rosy future of humanity in the 21st century have changed profoundly over the past 35 years, since the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the World Wide Web ushered in a new era of hyper-globalization. Initial projections of expanding freedoms and improving conditions soured by the early 2000s, marked by growing resentments about escalating societal inequalities as well as growing realizations about the adverse environmental impacts of human activities writ large. Given the potential consequences, I don’t think it is wise to assume that humanity can continue on its current path without conditions becoming substantially worse, so we need to focus our efforts on building a better global world that works well for both our species and the planet as a whole. I’ve found that the insights and tools of cybernetics (a universal meta-paradigm about purposeful phenomena) and systemics (a universal meta-paradigm about any phenomena) jointly offer a rigorous and powerful way to address these matters. This presentation draws on a major research project I have been conducting over the past decade that focuses on this goal. That project - currently titled Homo Cyberneticus: Creating, Understanding, and Shaping the Anthropocene - uses a cybernetics-systemics perspective to examine the science, history, and impact of humanity’s rapidly-evolving cyberneticity, especially over the last 500 years, and how these capabilities have generated an unprecedented mix of interconnected people-centric and planet-centric issues that are threatening the habitability of Planet Earth for human civilization as we know it. This lecture focuses on the multi-dimensional nature of human agency and autonomy, which I view as the most important and most anomalous phenomena in the known universe. Humanity’s increasing cybernetic capabilities and activities have produced exponential improvements in living conditions for people in a relatively short period of time, but they have also precipitated a runaway combination of challenges that are jeopardizing the systemic well-being of our species and our world as whole. Among the most corrosive of those challenges are recent efforts by many human agents (ranging from individuals to groups to communities to organizations to geopolitical entities) to maximize their own power by limiting the liberty of other agents, reversing a centuries-long history of expanding human rights and increasing human freedom in every aspect of our affairs. My hope is that this presentation will not only help clarify some of the most pressing challenges we are facing as a species, but that it can also help point out ways humanity can use its advanced cyberneticity to build a more equitable and sustainable future while there is still the time and opportunity to do so.
William J. Reckmeyer is a Professor of Cybernetics & Systems in the ANU School of Cybernetics as well as a Visiting Professor of Systems at the University of Hull, a Kellogg Global Fellow with the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and a Professor Emeritus of Leadership & Cybernetics at San José State University. He has also served as a Visiting Professor / Fellow at Harvard, Stanford, Sydney, Stockholm, and other leading universities; Chief Systems Scientist for two DoD-related research institutes; Strategic Advisor for several major leadership programs; and Faculty Chair of the Salzburg Global Citizenship Program.
During his 50-year career as a cybernetician/systems scientist in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, which included responsibilities as Director of SJSU’s pioneering Cybernetic Systems Program, Bill’s work as a transdisciplinary professor and practitioner has focused on integrative approaches to strategic change, collaborative leadership, global affairs, national security, and technology management. He is currently conducting a major research project - Homo Cyberneticus: Creating, Understanding, and Managing the Anthropocene - that examines the evolving role of humanity’s cybernetic capabilities in shaping our global world.
A past President of the American Society for Cybernetics, Bill received the Norbert Wiener Gold Medal in 2016 for his lifetime contributions to the field and is a Life Fellow of the American Society for Cybernetics and an Academician in the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetics Sciences. He has also been a Kellogg National Leadership Fellow, a Salzburg Global Fellow, and an AASCU Global Scholar.