Second-order science and new cybernetics

Abstract

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, has brought about fundamental changes in scientific production processes, significant reconfigurations in the architecture of science, new organizations of research designs, and complex interaction patterns with the societal and natural environments of science. The great transformation from It-Science to Bit-Science can be summarized as a dual revolution in complexity and reflexivity. The emergence of second-order science becomes by far the most significant change for the rise in reflexivity dimensions of the overall science system. 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 or first-order cybernetics, introduced by Norbert Wiener and second-order cybernetics, constructed as a new reflexive 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. New cybernetics becomes a unique domain with a maximum degree of reflexivity for the science system in general.