The Evolution of Knowledge - A Cybernetic Framework

Dr George MallenSystem Simulation Ltd

The personal narrativeWork at System Research with Pask on learning and decision making

Founding System Simulation Ltd and research fellowship at Royal College of Art

Dept of Design Research at RCA and Dept of Communication and Media at Bournemouth University

Computer graphics and the Computer Arts Society

Development of information systems for galleries and museums

Return to research on learning and decision making

The main evolutionary narrative -

Brain evolution

Homo sapiens

Language

Cultural evolution

Belief/Knowledge dichotomy

Cybernetics of belief and knowledge

A brief history of homo sapiens

Our ancient ancestors - first spurt

of brain growth 2m years ago,

from australopithecines to homo

habilis and home erectus.

Second spurt 500K to 200K

years ago to homo sapiens.

A brief history of homo sapiens

Mirror neuron circuitry in the

premotor cortex – integrates

action and perception.

Fire when we perform an action

OR see someone else perform

the same action

A brief history of mind

From “Swiss army knife” to

combined intellectual tools in

the modern human mind.

Mirror neurons as platform for

empathy, co-operation and

cultural development

A brief history of mind

Language evolution from 200K years ago - more sophisticated tools, passing on knowledge of how to make them …?

Homo sapiens sapiens emerges from Africa 100K years ago and spreads across the world

A brief history of mind

Then around 70K years ago near extinction! Mt Toba erupts, 6 years without sunlight, then an ice age. Human population drops from perhaps a million or so to a few tens of thousands. But from 50K years ago a cultural “explosion” which has continued to this day.

Evolution and culture

It is likely that the small surviving

populations of humans allowed

very rapid evolution of the

characteristics selected for

survival – primarily the ability to

pass on skills and knowledge

quickly via demonstration and

language.

Cultural development

The human capability to “show

and tell” probably kick started

the cultural development which

has led from near extinction to a

population of 6 billion and

massive environmental impact

in just 50,000 years.

Externalising knowledge and skill

The process of externalisation is

bound up with the “theory of

mind” concept, the recognition,

and use of the recognition, that

others have minds. I know that

you know that I know…. etc and

mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons

It looks as if mirror neurons are the link between doing things, seeing others do things and imagining doing things, as in reading a novel or watching TV or participating in virtual life. Common circuitry firing for fact and fiction...?

Externalisation

So evolution has equipped our

brains with a means of sharing

experiences (empathising) with

others. An individual's

experience is “externalised” via

the observer's mirror neuron

circuitry.

Cultural evolution

Human culture then emerges from

collections of empathised experiences

and the negotiation of what's

acceptable, ie useful for survival.

Tools for externalisation

There then comes a time when tool making skills acquired over a million years are used to symbolise experiences, for example body decoration, rock paintings and, eventually writing. This marks a further step in the externalisation process.

To summarise the argument -

Biological brains have evolved a

human culture based on

externalising and sharing

experiences. This has now

generalised to extensive,

reliable knowledge emerging

from science and technology

Actions, belief and knowledge

The primitive mind needed to act

to get food, fight, flee, etc, and

McCulloch's redundancy of

potential command model is a

brilliant stab at the control

processes involved. Such

actions inevitably based on

incomplete information.

Actions, belief and knowledge

The high risk of incomplete

information is mitigated by

judgement based on individual

and collective experience. But

the action is taken in the belief it

is the right thing to do but

certainly not with the knowledge

it is the right thing to do.

Actions, belief and knowledge

Acquiring reliable knowledge takes time. But recent advances in IT mean the rate of knowledge acquisition is accelerating. So today our homo sapiens culture has two coupled decision/information systems, the earlier belief system and the later knowledge system.

The challenges to cybernetics -

First is the need to understand the

workings of both the faster acting but

high risk belief system and the slower

acting but lower risk knowledge

system.

Second is the need to create more

effective coupling between the two so

that our governance processes might

cope with the crises ahead.

Some reading-

The Prehistory of the Mind, Steven Mithen, Thames & Hudson, 1996

After the Ice, Steven Mithen, Phoenix, 2003

The Long Summer, Brian Fagan, Granta, 2004

The Mind in the Cave, David Lewis-Williams, Thames & Hudson, 2002

The Political Mind, George Lakoff, Viking, 2008

And of course Hume, Popper, McCulloch, Pask, Beer etc