Contingency Alert: Editorial Note on Necessary and Impossible Media
Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 25 (2018), no. 4, pp. 12–13
3 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2019
Date Written: December 28, 2018
Abstract
The concept of contingency is essential to cybernetics and systems research. “Anything is contingent that is neither necessary nor impossible”, and nothing is more natural for us second-order observers than our preoccupation with forms that neither must nor cannot be observed the way we are observing them. Contingency is the leading medium for our observational agility. If we shift our focus from forms to media or to form-media relationships, however, even the most modest attempts to observe anything (contingent) are complicated by the observation that observations of most forms are contingent on the presumption of necessary and impossible media.
Keywords: Contingency, Media, Form
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation