The Purpose of a System Is How We Shape It

Abstract

our ideas look like? To answer this question, I aim to do a few things in this article. First, I’ll try to establish a base of values that we ought to pursue in the technologies we develop. Then I’ll narrowly define a term—ideisomorphism—that I have used a great deal in various articles up to this point to refer to tools that are naturally suited to the expression of human thought. With this definition established, I’ll explain in terms of cybernetics why our information systems need ideisomorphism to function properly. Finally, I’ll discuss a quantitative framework for measuring the extent to which tools are ideisomorphic. Why are our information systems places where ideas go to die? Why do so few of us, and fewer organizations, gain any level of mastery over our documents, ideas, and data? The reason is that our information management systems are not shaped like human consciousness. Drawing upon the field of cybernetics , I claim that to manage and master today’s immense variety of information, we need immense variety within our information systems. Without tools that mirror the range of human consciousness, our information will swallow us up; perhaps you feel like it already has. What might tools with the nuance and humanity necessary to express Insights → Our computers and their software are not currently ideisomorphic: They do not make it natural to express human ideas. → In terms of cybernetics, they are not “good regulators,” which is why so much human energy is crushed by computers. → Because of the feedback loop that exists between computers and ideas, the danger is that we will eventually think like machines at the expense of the subtlety and surprise of human thinking. C OMMENTA RY