A new – 4th order cybernetics and sustainable future

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report a further step in the authors' research and suggest a new – 4th order cybernetics, applying it to the issue of a sustainable future, that must unavoidably result from the current socio‐economic crisis surfacing in 2008 as the top of an iceberg, or humankind of the current civilization has poor chances to survive. One‐sided solutions do not prove to work; they make us think of systems and cybernetics.Design/methodology/approachQualitative research with application to real‐life cases.FindingsWhile cybernetics is about steering, i.e. influencing, cybernetics of the 1st and 2nd order might be insufficient for solving the problem, and cybernetics of the 3rd order might serve us better, but not enough either. The authors' thesis reads: they might better be put in a new synergy with the (Universal) Dialectical Systems Theory and Cybernetics of Conceptual Systems to make a new kind of systems theory/cybernetics called cybernetics of the 4th order. It should help human beings to attain the requisite holism of the human approach and the requisite wholeness of outcomes of human action.Research limitations/implicationsA more holistic concept of cybernetics is suggested.Practical implicationsControl of ecological problems of today might be made easier.Originality/valueThis is the first publication about the concept of the 4th order cybernetics, especially with application to issues of sustainability.