Clearing up on Luhmann, Wiener and Posthumanism

Thinking about last week’s class and readings, I have to admit that I still haven’t gotten my head 100% around the more important ideas. On their own I understand (I think!) the concepts of Luhmann’s social systems theory, Wiener’s cybernetics and posthumanism in general. But how social systems theory connects to Wiener’s cybernetics, and Wiener’s cybernetics to posthumanism, I’m not exactly sure, or at least blurry on the details. I understand that both social systems theory and cybernetics explore systems. Luhmann discussed how systems are operationally closed and, and I know that cybernetics involve systems with a closed signalling loop. The similarities are already very clear. But when Neal talked about the roots of the word cybernetics, with cyber being the Latin for a boat’s steersman I began (no pun intended) to get lost. What particularly confused me was when Neal said that the most important element of the arrangement of steersman, boat, and water, was the water. I definitely missed something.

We then didn’t get far enough, or have enough time in class to discuss how cybernetics is related to posthumanism. I have made my cursory scroll through the cybernetics Wikipedia page to see if there was some broad, overly simplified explanation, but obviously I feel like I’ve got some further enlightening to do. The self-organisation and closed signalling loops of cybernetics explains the systems or robots very well, but I think that’s only the surface of their connection. That or I’m over-complicating things. But considering that I want to write about posthuman representations in science fiction films as part of my research assignment, I feel I need to get a much better grasp on the concepts of the technology, and exactly how it relates to its broader, connected theories.