Cybernetics — The Art of Steering
for the prevention of mass extinction…
As we have understood so far, the challenges we face as a species today are unfathomable and insurmountable. Following the recent tragic bushfires and climate movements around the planet, we are still staying put in our same old ways and haven’t made any drastic improvements in policy against our looming mass extinction.
What’s ironic about the probable termination of the human race is that earth will recover and thrive once we disappear. Nature is extremely resilient, regenerative and thrives effortlessly through a series of trials and errors in the natural selection process. There is no ifs or buts with nature’s thriveability. Because of evolution, we made it here today.
However, with our currently rigid political and economic paradigm, we have shown ourselves that we haven’t been successful in our efforts for thriving and conserving our planet. Instead, it seems to take us a huge amount of effort to get our policies and systems to work effectively with the earth’s biosphere and ecosystems. We have shown each other that at present moment we lack the capacity to thrive holistically with the planet. The outcome of this is unpredictable and terrifying as we approach a tipping point.
Why are we doing this, is it because humans are dumb? I don’t think so, humans have a track record for showing grand intelligence and have been changing the game over the last few centuries. We should be proud we have made it this far and I believe we have yet to be surprised about what we can achieve when we begin collaborating in unison.
The problem is that the majority of us have not woken up to the reality of our crumbling world. Most of us still live in a fantasy dream which we continuously want to uphold with ever-more endless consumption. That is a challenge far more complex than the climate crisis. Our crumbling external material world is a direct manifestation of our disconnection from ourselves and from nature. As time goes on, the crisis of separation will become more apparent and more intense until it feels inescapable and we have no other choice but to finally make the connection or face extinction.
Do we wait until the crisis gets far worse, down a trajectory we don’t want before we take action?
The climate emergency is indeed a wake up call. It’s alarming, but we shouldn’t be victims of it nor feel too overwhelmed and powerless by all the cynicism of the news. It’s time to take control over our reactions and become proactive earth stewards and builders of a new world.
The downward spiralling feedback from nature is inevitable. Earth is trying to shake us up, not as an opponent but as a collaborator, forcing us to take the initiative towards mass transformation. I mean, why are we still here otherwise? Earth could instantly swallow us up, but the fact we still exist today after countless amounts of destructive pollution, war, biodiversity loss and the mass-murder of animals — nature’s showing resiliency and is giving some of us some mercy. Let’s turn this into an opportunity.
The challenges behind the climate crisis is due to a mass crisis of disconnection, the lack of love, empathy and compassion capable for our planet. If we were to immerse ourselves in a collective embrace of connection, we could witness unrecognisable changes we would have never believed to be possible.
So we should listen, we should take a deep breath, face and own up what we have ignored for centuries. You might think — how can we suddenly change our ways?
The answer is not to go back to old ways of doing, but to bring forward the wisdom of the past with the knowledge of the present and pull in the technologies of the future that enable us to work together with conscious participation, in a mutually beneficial relationship with the interrelated complex dynamic systems of our natural ecology. It will be necessary to create the conducive conditions for advantageous cooperation with nature through a symbiotic merging of our biophysical, economic and social systems; requiring the blending of electrons, atoms, photons, neurones and so forth.
Is this possible? I am very convinced, that’s why I am participating in the work of Cybernetics and Holistic Self-Organising Governance, to prove it so. Through diligent and consistent research exhibiting the ways in which we can technically increase symbiotic cooperation, we can generate more awareness around it and get everyone onboard.
What is cybernetics? Cybernetics is the Art of Steering. A way of controlling and manoeuvring complex dynamic systems towards a multitude of other possible inter-networked systems that coexist multidimensionally and effortlessly to achieve specific emergent outcomes. Just like nature, it should involve the process of cancelling out what does not work or align for the sake of survival. It is a process of systemic adaptation using bottom-up as well as top-down control and feedback — a symmetric organisation and distribution of power that is in equilibrium and a constant state of balance.
The kind of cybernetics I will be working on will involve the craft of subtly tailoring and orienting feedback loops, wherein I will be learning the ways of applying mathematical and computational chaos theory that would enable the transition and shift of our current trajectory, moving from a downward spiralling, degenerative, ill-fated future of self-termination towards an upward spiralling future of regenerative feedback that will prevent us from our self-termination.
However, such deep work takes as long as a whole lifetime to develop and solidify into something that can be applicable and scalable for industry. It is especially trickier and more complex if you are a 22 year-old fine art graduate like me who formerly mastered painting/drawing as an attempt to understand the meaning of life — to now attempting to master complex systems in computer science, economics and mathematical theories for the purpose of building and bringing in a fruitful future.
Maybe you could say that this is the biggest and most ambitious art project of them all?
I’ll put this out there for now. At this current moment, I am faced with standard norms that you’d expect from every young person in their early 20s. This however does not stop me from committing towards serving for a regenerative, upward spiralling society for all.
With this said, I invite you to join those of us who are already working towards a future of utmost creativity, enlightenment, fertility, abundance and wisdom. A transformed future, far beyond what we can possibly imagine. I can’t do this alone, we can’t do this in isolation. Let’s unite as one and take action.
You can follow my work on Twitter. There will be more to come in due course.
— Kiki
