On delight: Thoughts for tomorrow

What is it about?

Art and design, the article argues, do not narrow the future to what can be predicted – to a very limited version of what the future could be. They are suggestive of the future, not predictive. They maintain the agency of future generations. The article introduces second-order cybernetics as a way of thinking that has benefited enormously from this insight, which, nevertheless, does not take a stance against technological progress. As an interdisciplinary practice, the focus of second-order cybernetics is on integration. Second-order thinking, the article argues, is essentially poetic. It foregoes prediction in favour of the potentiality of encountering tomorrow’s delights.

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Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The article introduces the problematics of the classical two-valued logic on which Western thought is generally based, outlining that under the conditions of its logical assumptions the subject I is situated in a world that it cannot address. In this context, the article outlines a short history of cybernetics and the shift from first- to second-order cybernetics. The basic principles of Gordon Pask’s 1976 Conversation Theory are introduced. It is argued that this second-order theory grants agency to others through a re-conception of living beings as You logically transcending the I. The key principles of Conversation Theory are set in relation to the poetic forms of discourse that played a key role in art as well as philosophical thinking in China in the past.

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