Cybernetics - Viable Systems Model
Cybersyn - applied to Commitment Pooling in ancestral and today's technologies
Not only did Stafford Beer have great beard, his ‘cybernetics’, particularly his Viable System Model (VSM), can be effectively applied to the concept of Commitment Pooling (recently published) as practiced by ancient communities and formalized through distributed ledger technology today. Cybernetics, the study of systems, feedback, and control, provides a framework to understand and optimize these complex social systems.
Cybernetics and Commitment Pooling
Viable System Model (VSM) Stafford Beer's VSM categorizes an organization's structure into five interconnected subsystems that are integral for it to function and remain viable (living). These include:
Operations - The individual units or processes that carry out the system’s primary activities.
Coordination - Mechanisms to ensure harmony and reduce conflicts among operational units.
Control / Execution - Overseeing and ensuring that operations adhere to agreed policies.
Collective Intelligence - Scanning the external environment to adapt and innovate.
Policy - Governance and decision-making to balance present operations and future needs.
Ancestral Resource Coordination: Indigenous communities’ resource coordination, such as the Rotational Labor Associations (ROLAs) and mutual service traditions like Mweria of the Giriama in Kenya, embody these principles of cybernetic systems as follows:
System 1 (Operations): The day-to-day seeding, exchange, usage and pooling of commitments for resources such as labor or goods.
System 2 (Coordination): Community norms and practices ensure that resources are allocated and commitments are fulfilled harmoniously, preventing conflicts.
System 3 (Control): Elders or community leaders oversee these activities, ensuring everyone adheres to the commitments and repays debts.
System 4 (Collective Intelligence): The community's ability to adapt to internal and external changes, such as shifting agricultural cycles or economic pressures.
System 5 (Policy): Cultural values and collective decision-making processes guide the community’s long-term strategies and immediate actions.
Historically, ROLAs and mutual service traditions like Mweria have evolved over centuries, adapting to the changing needs and challenges of indigenous communities."
Commitment Pooling Protocol Using Distributed Ledger Technology:
While traditional ROLA systems relied on verbal agreements and trust, modern systems using DLT offer automated enforcement, interoperability between groups and commitments and immutable records.
Modernizing these practices through distributed ledger technology (DLT) extends the cybernetic principles by adding transparency, interoperability, scalability, and robustness:
System 1 (Operations): DLT records individual commitments (vouchers) and transactions, ensuring every contribution and exchange is transparent.
System 2 (Coordination): Smart contracts (developed by communities) enforce rules automatically, ensuring that transactions are consistent and fair.
System 3 (Control): Automated mechanisms within the DLT can provide real-time auditing and control, ensuring adherence to community standards without central oversight for every action.
System 4 (Intelligence): Data analytics from the ledger can provide insights into usage patterns, resource needs, and potential improvements.
System 5 (Policy): Governance models encoded in the ledger can reflect the community’s values, allowing for decentralized decision-making and policy adjustments.
Application and Benefits
Applying cybernetics to Commitment Pooling enhances:
Efficiency: Automated coordination and control reduce the administrative burden.
Transparency: Immutable records on the blockchain build trust and accountability.
Scalability: Systems can easily scale to include more participants and transactions without losing coherence.
Adaptability: The system can evolve based on real-time data and community input, making it resilient to changes.
Viewing Commitment Pooling through a cybernetic lens provides a robust framework for enhancing ancient practices with modern technology, ensuring these systems remain viable, transparent, and scalable. The integration of distributed ledger technology facilitates these improvements, ensuring the principles of mutual service and resource coordination can thrive in diverse and evolving socio-economic contexts.
For those interested in learning more about VSM, consider reading Stafford Beer's 'Brain of the Firm' and 'The Heart of Enterprise’. I came to know of his work through Project Cybersyn.
Project Cybersyn, initiated in Chile during the early 1970s under the leadership of President Salvador Allende, was an ambitious attempt to apply cybernetic principles to manage the country's economy. Directed by British cybernetician Stafford Beer, the project aimed to create a real-time decision-support system to oversee and optimize industrial production and resource allocation across Chile.
Technological Limitations: Back then, Project Cybersyn faced significant technological limitations. The infrastructure relied on telex machines and rudimentary computer systems that lacked the processing power and connectivity required for real-time data analytics and comprehensive system integration. In addition they lacked the ability to create polycentric layers that would coordinate together and instead had to rely on central control.
Modern Advancements: Today, with the advent of advanced digital technologies such as distributed ledger technology (DLT), artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet, we have the tools necessary to realize the vision of Project Cybersyn more effectively. These technologies can handle vast amounts of data, provide real-time insights, and facilitate secure, decentralized, transparent, and scalable resource coordination.
DLT and Commitment Pooling: Commitment Pooling using DLT exemplifies how far technology has come since the days of Project Cybersyn. DLT ensures transparency and security, while smart contracts automate the enforcement of rules and agreements. The application of DLTs in Commitment Pooling brings several benefits that Project Cybersyn aimed for but could not achieve due to technological constraints:
- Real-time data processing and analysis.
- Secure and transparent record-keeping.
- Automated coordination through smart contracts.
- Efficiency: Automated systems reduce the need for manual intervention, lowering administrative costs and errors.
- Transparency: Immutable blockchain records ensure all transactions are transparent and verifiable.
- Scalability: Modern networks can easily scale to include numerous participants and handle complex transactions without losing coherence.
- Adaptability: Advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms can provide insights and adapt to changing conditions in real-time.
Project Cybersyn was a groundbreaking initiative that laid a modern foundation for using cybernetics in economic management. Although the technology of the time was insufficient to fully realize its potential, today's advanced digital technologies make it possible to implement these concepts effectively. By leveraging Commitment Pooling protocols with DLTs and modern cybernetic principles, we can enhance traditional practices, ensuring they are viable, transparent, and scalable in today's complex socio-economic environments.