I have to say my first reaction is 'How abstractable are these ideas from computer science and the natural sciences to people?' It seems like there's been some research on it, so I'm a little less skeptical than I initially was. EDIT: NotPhil touched on what I was trying to voice - when you start taking ideas from the computer and natural sciences and try to abstract them to other areas, a lot of context gets glossed over and ideas misunderstood. Most notably, the fact that evolution occurs in nature has been used in a particularly nasty instance of the is-ought fallacy to suggest that we should not help people in need because they are somehow 'unfit', and humorously, altruism has considerable evidence behind it suggesting that it is evolutionarily adaptive.
Theories are tools. This particular cybernetic theory of freedom would suggest very specific things in terms of policy and long-term collective organization for the human species. Most notably, all basic individual metabolic functioning should be considered a human right. Second, the option of the individual to enhance cognitive functioning should also be considered a human right. This means that our global goal for governance in the 21st century should be the creation of a world in which every single human has their basic biological needs met unconditionally. Secondly, it means that choice and opportunity to compete in the global market place of ideas be made accessible to all (i.e., free global higher education). These are lofty goals - but they are not goals incompatible with any physical laws. Theoretically we could describe physical and institutional mechanisms to realize it this century. And, unless we achieve such an organization, we are systematically stifling billions of mind/brains of their functional potential. IMO, this is truly unfortunate, not only for the quality of conscious experience, but also for the continued generation of complex living organization.How abstractable are these ideas from computer science and the natural sciences to people?
I've done some very limited reading in the past on cybernetics, but you've just reminded me to go to the American Society for Cybernetics' website and go poke around a little more. I guess what I'm trying to find is a sort of Cybernetics/Control and Systems Theory 101-type textbook, because at least from my admittedly limited perspective on all of this, I'm struggling to understand how all of this entails cybernetics in particular as opposed to merely a lot of at least apparently un-associated, with cybernetics and with each other, ideas of ethics and global development. Without some definitions, standards, and structure, as well as some testable bases on which its fundamentals rest, all of this sounds like fevered speculation. I don't doubt that these exist in cybernetics, but I am trying to assuage my doubts where people are attempting to apply it to human society. EDIT: A bunch of tutorials.