The Evolution of Knowledge - A Cybernetic Framework Dr George Mallen System Simulation Ltd

The personal narrative Work 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