Müller K. H. (2016) Second-Order Science and New Cybernetics. In: Carayannis E. G., Campbell D. F. J. & Efthymiopoulos M. P. (eds.) Handbook of Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy and Cyber-Defense. Springer, Berlin: in press.
Müller K. H.
(
2016)
Second-Order Science and New Cybernetics.
In: Carayannis E. G., Campbell D. F. J. & Efthymiopoulos M. P. (eds.) Handbook of Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy and Cyber-Defense. Springer, Berlin: in press.
Currently the global science system undergoes an epochal transformation which can be summarized as a transition from It-Science to Bit-Science. Bit-Science as a new phase in the evolution of science brings about fundamental changes in scientific production processes, significant re-configurations in the architecture of science, new organizations of research designs and complex interaction patterns with the societal and natural environments of science. The emergence of second-order science becomes an essential component for Bit-Science as an institutionalization of reflexivity. In view of these fundamental transformations of the science system a new type of cybernetics can be developed under the name of ‘new cybernetics’ which supersedes the area of traditional cybernetics, introduced by Norbert Wiener and second-order cybernetics, constructed as a new version of cybernetics since the late 1960s with its emphasis on observing systems, goals and observers. The second part of this article explores the new cognitive horizons of new cybernetics as well as its central goals, functions and tasks.