Cybernetic Futures

Dr Ben Swift

APS Strategic Futures Network · September 2022

I acknowledge the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pay respect to the elders past and present.

cybernetics

the study of purposeful, self-regulating systems

a short (mostly wrong) history of futures

two takeaways

  1. the stories we tell about the future shape the systems we build in the present — and vice versa
  2. the relationships in a system determine its long-term behaviour

ANU School of Cybernetics

tools to manage the transformation of “systems of autonomous systems” — including cybernetic futures

stories: the thing from the future

in a ____ future, there is a ____ related to ____ … what is it?

relationships: influence diagrams

identify components and pairwise relationships

look for the loops — use them to drive future scenarios

fin