Towards a General Theory of Change: A Cybernetic and Philosophical Understanding

Gianfranco Minati

We consider possible cybernetic and systemic approaches to an interdisciplinary general theory of change as a philosophical and scientific project. The approaches considered are intended as necessary; however, they are not necessarily the only ones, probably, at least in some cases, non-sufficient. The aim of such a theory should be that of identifying levels of descriptions suitable to classify, describe, and forecast the consequences of changes, as well as of finding the conditions which allow to control them as introduced by Cybernetics. Historically the scientific contents relate to the theory of phase transitions, its variations, and quantum approaches. However, we consider processes whose dynamics of change may be represented by other approaches such as meta-structural properties, that is, of necessarily dynamic structures between variable clusters rather than between entities considered structurally invariable. Furthermore, we consider the dynamics of processes of emergence, the general process of changing, as dynamics of validity regimes, an approach inspired by considering fields rather than entities in physics. On the philosophical side of the interdisciplinary general theory, we consider how such a hypothetical general theory of change should consider the theoretical incompleteness of changing, based on equivalences and multiplicities, and the quasi-ness of phenomena when properties are continuously lost and recovered. When systems are not always systems, systems are not only systems, and a system is not always the same system. The quasi-ness of the interaction machinery supporting the interaction activity of emergence is given by the variable duration, different start and end instants, inhomogeneity, and the various composability of interactions themselves which, furthermore, interfere with each other. It relates to the keeping of the same identity by continuously changing systems such as emergent systems. A swarm is always a swarm, even if continuously different. Theoretical incompleteness and quasi-ness are philosophical aspects of the meta-structural, mesoscopic approach, suitable to give new philosophical meaning to Cybernetics and General System Theory in the field of complexity. Where ‘to regulate’ means the ability to induce and to orient complex phenomena (where the replacement substitutes the regulation) with the fundamental role of weak forces as constraints to dynamics, to be processed by systems and not only be formally respected.

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