„Cybernetics is a way of thinking, not a collection of facts. Thinking involves concepts: forming them and relating them to each other. Some of the concepts that characterize cybernetics have been about for a long time, implicitly or explicitly. Self-regulation and control, autonomy and communication, for example, are certainly not new in ordinary language, but they did not figure as central terms in any science“ So beginnt die„Declaration of the American Society for Cybernetics„, verfasst von Ernst von Glasersfeld, unter Mitwirkung von Stuart Umpleby, Paul Trachtman, Ranulph Glanville, Francisco Varela, Joseph Goguen, Bill Reckmeyer, Heinz von Foerster, Valentin Turchin, und Glasersfelds Frau Charlotte. Es ist ein Manifest der Kybernetik, nur fünf Seiten lang, aber eindringlich und ausdrucksstark. Es schließt mit einem optimistischen Statement hinsichtlich des gesellschaftlichen Potentials der Kybernetik 2. Ordnung, das man angesichts der derzeitigen weltpolitischen Situation allerdings nur mit einer gewissen Wehmut zur Kenntnis nimmt:„The wheel, the harnessing of electricity, the invention of antiseptics and the printing press have all had somewhat similar effects on the mechanics of living. Cybernetics has a far more fundamental potential. Its concepts of self-regulation, autonomy, and interactive adaptation provide, for the first time in the history of Western civilization, a rigorous theoretical basis for the achievement of dynamic equilibrium between human individuals, groups, and societies. Looking at the world today, it would be difficult not to conclude that a way of thinking which, rather than foster competition and conflict, deliberately aims at adaptation and collaboration may be the only way to maintain human life on this planet“
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