Tag Archives: Bateson

Information from a Cybernetic Viewpoint:

In today’s post, I want to revisit the notion of information from a cybernetic viewpoint, drawing primarily from Gregory Bateson’s well known formulation that information is the difference that makes a difference. This definition does not merely redefine information. It quietly displaces where information is assumed to reside and how it is assumed to function. This post is part of a series examining a cybernetic approach to tackling misinformation.

In everyday discourse, information is commonly treated as a thing. We speak of information being transmitted, stored, corrupted, lost, or controlled. This language suggests that information exists independently of those who encounter it, as if it were a commodity that can be packaged and delivered. Cybernetics has long resisted this framing, not by denying the existence of data in the form of signals or messages, but by insisting that information cannot be separated from the consequences it produces within a system.

Bateson’s phrasing forces a pause because it contains two differences, not one. These two differences are often collapsed into a single gesture, which obscures what cybernetics is trying to put more light on. To understand information cybernetically, these differences must be held apart and examined in relation to the observer, the context, and the viability of the system involved.

The first difference concerns distinguishability, or the ability to make distinctions. For a difference to exist as a difference, it must be generated or recognized by an observer. This does not mean that the world lacks structure or regularity. It means that distinctions do not announce themselves independently of the capacities and concerns of the cognitive observer encountering them. An observer must be able to draw a distinction for it to count as a difference at all.

This ability to distinguish is not abstract or universal. It is shaped by history, embodiment, training, and present need. In cybernetic terms, this is a question of variety. An observer with limited internal variety cannot register certain distinctions, regardless of how obvious they may appear to another observer. What fails to be noticed is a mismatch between the variety available and the variety required.
This immediately situates information within the notion of context. A difference that matters in one situation may be invisible or irrelevant in another. The same signal can be richly informative for one observer and entirely inert for another. From this perspective, the problem of information overload is often misdiagnosed. What overwhelms is not the quantity of differences but the absence of appropriate distinctions and filtering mechanisms within the observer.

The second difference concerns consequence. Not every distinction that can be made will matter. A difference becomes information only when it participates in altering the state, orientation, or activity of the cognizing “system”. This is where the second difference enters, the difference made by the difference.
Cybernetically, this is best understood in terms of viability. A difference matters when it bears upon the conditions under which a cognizing “system” continues to operate. It may support stability, signal threat, invite adaptation, or require reorganization. A distinction that does not affect viability may still be noticed, but it does not rise to the level of information in Bateson’s sense.

In a pragmatic turn, this reframing moves information away from correctness and toward consequence. It is not enough for a distinction to be accurate or well formed. It must matter in practice. Information is therefore tied directly to action potential, even when that action takes the form of restraint, delay, or reconsideration.

Between these two differences sits transduction. Whatever perturbation occurs in the environment does not arrive as meaning. It must be transformed through the structures of the observer. This transformation is neither passive nor optional. It is how a system turns disturbance into significance.

Transduction is deeply contextual and personal, without being arbitrary. It reflects the ways in which a system has learned to respond to its surroundings. Two observers may be perturbed by the same event, yet transduce it differently because their histories, expectations, and responsibilities differ. Meaning is not extracted from the world. It is enacted through ongoing structural coupling.

This is why information cannot be cleanly separated from the observer. What appears as the same input can lead to entirely different informational outcomes. To speak of information without speaking of transduction is to quietly reintroduce representational assumptions that cybernetics sought to set aside.
This leads naturally to the notion of informational closure. As Heinz von Foerster put it, the environment is as it is. It does not contain information waiting to be picked up. It contains events, regularities, and disturbances. Information arises only within operationally closed systems as a result of their internal changes in response to perturbation.

From this viewpoint, information is not transmitted. Signals may pass between systems, but information happens only when a system changes in a way that matters to it from the perturbation. What is stored are not information units but traces that may later participate in new acts of distinction. This undermines the idea of information as a substance that can be accumulated or depleted independently of the systems involved.

Human communication introduces an additional layer through language and social coordination. For a difference to make a difference in a social context, participants must be engaged in overlapping language games. Meaning does not reside in words alone but in shared practices, expectations, and forms of life.
Error correction, in this sense, does not occur in the signal but in interaction. A message is understood not because it is decoded correctly, but because the receiver anticipates what is likely to be meant and adjusts that anticipation through feedback. Reading a doctor’s cursive prescription is a familiar example. The pharmacist does not decipher letters in isolation. They draw upon knowledge of past interactions with the doctor, medications, dosages, and common medical practice. Understanding emerges from participation, not from transmission.

All of this brings us to a final consideration that is often neglected because it does not present itself as information at all. This is the question of slack. For a difference to make a difference, there must be sufficient room within the system for it to be taken up. This slack can appear in several forms. It may take the form of redundancy, where a distinction is encountered through multiple channels or repetitions. It may appear as amplification, where the manner of presentation gives the difference sufficient weight to register. It may also appear as relaxation time, where the system is afforded the temporal space to digest what has occurred.

Without some degree of slack, even meaningful distinctions fail to become information. When perturbations arrive faster than they can be transduced, the system does not become more informed. It becomes saturated. What follows is not heightened responsiveness but withdrawal. The system in many regards learns that responding no longer contributes to viability.

Relaxation time is particularly important in this regard. There was a period when news arrived with built in pauses. A morning paper or an evening broadcast created a rhythm that allowed distinctions to settle. Between these moments, there was time for discussion, reflection, and forgetting. That rhythm provided slack and maybe allowed for a more congenial political climate.

The continuous, twenty four hour cycle of today’s media, in which opinion often masquerades as news, has steadily eroded this condition and altered the political landscape in ways that reward polarization and immediacy. Nowadays, perturbations arrive without pause, and the responsibility for digestion has been shifted entirely onto the observer. The result is a familiar paradox. As reports of suffering increase, the capacity to respond meaningfully diminishes. Perturbations may accumulate, but few of them make a difference.

This is often described as complacency or moral failure. From a cybernetic viewpoint, it is more accurately described as a collapse of the conditions under which information can occur. The system is overwhelmed beyond its capacity to transduce, and indifference emerges as a protective response. This leads to the conditions for the medium to become the message.


Final Words:
If information is not a commodity, then neither is attention. Both depend on proportion, timing, and care. Environments that destroy slack while demanding responsiveness do not produce better informed observers. They erode the very capacities required for differences to make a difference.

Seen this way, the preservation of informational conditions is not merely a technical concern. It is an ethical one, bound up with how we design systems, share responsibility, and allow meaning the time and space it requires to emerge.

Stay curious and Always keep on learning…


If you liked what you have read, please consider my book “Second Order Cybernetics,” available in hard copy and e book formats. https://www.cyb3rsyn.com/products/soc-book

The Form of Batesonian Abduction:

In today’s post, I am looking at Batesonian abduction through the lens of George Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form (LoF). I have written about LoF here, here and here. Spencer Brown came up with an elegant algebra mechanism to capture the thinking process using a notation called as “mark”. I welcome the reader to explore the ideas in the links given above.

Laws of Form (LoF):

I will go through the basic calculations and notations needed for this post. I am going to use parentheses to capture the notion of the mark. For example, the distinction of an idea ‘A’ can be notated as:

(A)

The first principle in LoF is the Law of Condensation. This basically means that when an idea is repeated, it condensates into the original idea itself. For example, if I make a distinction of an apple, and I repeat the distinction again, I have not added anything new if the two concepts are identical to each other. The original concept remains the same.  This is shown below:

(Apple) (Apple) → (Apple)

However, distinct ideas maintain their separation.

(Apple) (Orange) → (Apple) (Orange)

Through contrast and comparison of different ideas, we can achieve deeper understanding. This is shown below where we gain a better understanding of fruits in terms of Apples and Oranges:

(Fruits ((Apple) (Orange)))

Abduction:

With the basic notations of LoF out of the way, let us look at abduction. Abduction is a reasoning process introduced by Charles S. Peirce. It is a way of coming up with hypotheses to explain surprising or puzzling observations. It is different from induction (generalizing from observations) and deduction (deriving conclusions from general principles).

Peirce saw abduction as important in the context of discovery, the stage in science where new theories or ideas are generated. The modern notion of abduction has become more focused. Modern views of abduction often focus on finding the “best” explanation for a given observation. Peirce did not emphasize choosing the best hypothesis among many possibilities. He was more focused on generating hypotheses that could later be tested and refined. Peirce thought that while the hypothesis might be influenced by existing knowledge, abduction is still important because it leads you to consider new possibilities you have not fully explored yet.

For example, if a scientist notices that certain plants grow better near a specific type of soil, they might abduce the hypothesis that certain nutrients in the soil are helpful for growth. This hypothesis can later be tested through experiments and predictions.

Batesonian Abduction:

Gregory Bateson, the renowned anthropologist and cybernetician, developed a more nuanced interpretation of abduction. His approach emphasized understanding relationship patterns rather than linear cause-and-effect explanations. Bateson positioned abduction within the broader context of pattern recognition in networks, viewing it as a cognitive process for interpreting systemic patterns.

For Bateson, abduction was about seeing how different elements in a system relate to each other in a non-linear way. Instead of finding a single cause, Bateson was interested in contexts and feedback loops — how an element can be part of a larger dynamic pattern or system. Bateson, while acknowledging abduction as a method of forming hypotheses, placed it more broadly within the context of pattern recognition in networks. He saw abduction not just as a logical operation but as a cognitive process that helps us interpret and make sense of patterns in the world. For Bateson, abduction was related to the way humans and animals perceive and respond to relationships between elements in a ‘system’, not simply in relation to surprising observations or hypotheses.

Bateson asked in Mind and Nature:

What pattern connects the crab to the lobster and the orchid to the primrose and all the four of them to me? And me to you? And all the six of us to the amoeba in one direction and to the backward schizophrenic in another?… What is the pattern which connects all the living creatures?

His central thesis proposed that the connecting pattern is itself a metapattern—a pattern of patterns that defines the broader generalization of connectivity through patterns.

Bateson explained his take on abduction as:

Every abduction may be seen as a double or multiple description of some object or event or sequence.

The idea of double or multiple descriptions is very profound. In simple words, it is better to have multiple perspectives of a situation to have a better understanding of the situation. This represents a pluralistic framework. A simple example is the binocular vision we have. Each eye captures a slightly different image because they are located on opposite sides of the face. The brain combines these two images to create a single, three-dimensional perception of the world. Using our LoF notation, this can be described as follows:

(3-dimensional perception of the world ((Left eye image) (Right eye image)))

In terms of abduction, the brain “abductively” connects these two different descriptions (the views from each eye) to create a unified perception. The brain interprets the difference between the two flat images to infer depth – how far away objects are. This is similar to how abduction works by generating an explanation (in this case, the perception of depth) based on two related but distinct pieces of information (the two images).

The pluralistic aspect is the most important idea that I want to bring to the readers. In order to improve our understanding of a situation in complexity science or systems thinking or thinking in general, we should have epistemic humility and welcome different perspectives. Bateson also defined information as the difference that makes the difference. If the two descriptions are identical, we do not generate a new understanding. This would be very similar to being in an echo chamber. Now, this does not of course mean that you need to welcome ideas that are demonstrably absurd. The gist is that you need to be open to other perspectives and take a pluralistic approach.

Final Words:
The etymology of “abduction” means to lead away. It suggests leading away from our current knowledge to new explanations. It represents a movement away from what we already know. It is about being led away to new understanding.

A profound connection from Bateson’s Double Description suggests that real learning is not about accumulating single descriptions, but about developing the ability to see patterns across contexts. Using LoF helps us see why – the form (pattern((A)(B))) shows how understanding emerges from relationship rather than from things themselves. The Metapattern structure suggests that what we are really doing in double description is learning to recognize “patterns that connect” – metapatterns. This is why Bateson saw it as crucial for understanding complex situations like ecosystems or minds.

The LoF notation reveals something profound about abduction itself – it’s not just inference, but a leap to a new logical type. When we write (pattern ((A )(B))), we’re showing how abduction creates new knowledge by seeing across levels.

The use of LoF notation perhaps gives us a new way to look at things. I will finish with another example of improving our understanding utilizing a pluralistic approach. The paper, An update on Inuit perceptions of their changing environment, Qikiqtaaluk (Baffin Island, Nunavut) by Sansoulet, Therrien et al, offers an example of a pluralistic approach to understanding climate change, as it incorporates indigenous knowledge and perspectives alongside scientific observations. A LoF notation might be:

(climate-understanding ((scientific-models) (indigenous-knowledge) (economic-analysis)))

There are several examples in the paper that talks to the changes that the Inuit have seen as part of climate change. With respect to Inuit perceptions on climate change, including weather, climate impacts on the ice, and invasive/disappearing species, Inuit report the change in the ice as the main and most widespread change to have occurred in the last decades, with adaptation to this change being increasingly difficult and unsafe for hunters.

This integration of different ways of knowing exemplifies Bateson’s vision of abduction as a tool for understanding complex systems. It shows how the marriage of traditional knowledge and scientific observation can lead to richer, more nuanced understanding – exactly the kind of “difference that makes a difference” that Bateson emphasized. Through this lens, we see that addressing complex challenges like climate change requires not just multiple sources of data, but the ability to recognize and connect patterns across different domains of knowledge.

The application of Batesonian abduction and LoF notation thus offers not just a theoretical framework, but a practical approach to understanding and addressing complex challenges in our interconnected world. It reminds us that a nuanced and better understanding emerges from our ability to recognize and integrate the patterns that connect diverse ways of knowing.

Always Keep on Learning…

The Monkey’s Prose – Cybernetic Explanation:

Imagine that you are on your daily walk in the park. You see a monkey on a park bench, busily typing away. You become curious as to what is happening. You slowly approach him from behind, and try to see what is being typed on the paper. Strange enough, what you see typed on the paper so far is legible prose; complete with grammar and semantics. What could be an explanation for this phenomenon?

This example was given by the great anthropologist cybernetician, Gregory Bateson. He used the example to explain “cybernetic explanation”, as he termed it. He said:

Causal explanation is usually positive. We say that billiard ball B moved in such and such a direction because billiard ball A hit it at such and such an angle. In contrast to this, cybernetic explanation is always negative… In cybernetic language, the course of events is said to be subject to restraints, and it is assumed that, apart from such restraints, the pathways of change would be governed only by equality of probability. In fact, the “restraints” upon which cybernetic explanation depends can in all cases be regarded as factors which determine inequality of probability If we find a monkey striking a typewriter apparently at random but in fact writing a meaningful prose, we shall look for restraints, either inside the monkey or inside the typewriter… Somewhere there must have been a circuit which could identify error and eliminate it.

Bateson’s use of the word “restraints” is comparable to “constraints”. Larry Richards notes that Bateson used the term “restraint” referring to the approach of Cybernetics as “negative explanation”, focusing on what is not desirable, rather than what is. When there are no constraints, we can say that all events are equally likely. If we have enough chances, we will see at least one event, where a monkey can type out a work of Shakespeare (sometimes referred to as Infinite Monkey theorem). But here, we are looking at cybernetic phenomenon where constraints are present, and they guide the outcome. In the case of the monkey’s prose, one possibility could be that the typewriter is programmed in such a fashion that no matter what key is pressed, a preprogrammed prose is generated. This would be an example of a circuit that Bateson referred to.

Let’s consider another example. Let’s say that every hour you take two measurements, measurement A and measurement B. What you find is that measurement A goes up and down, while measurement B remains fairly steady. From this dataset, what correlation can you determine between A and B? Without any additional knowledge, the general consensus would that there is no correlation between the two measurements. What if we consider the mechanism of a thermostat? The thermostat does not turn ON until the temperature goes outside a tight range. Only when the temperature goes outside the range does the thermostat turn ON. It maintains the internal temperature of the house based on how the external temperature impacts the internal temperature. In the example above, the external temperature was A and the internal temperature was B. Without a knowledge of thermostat, if we were given just the two datasets, we would not be able to see any connection between the two datasets. This idea is sometimes referred to Friedman’s Thermostat after the American economist, Milton Friedman.

The thermostat is a very basic example of cybernetic explanation. Even though, we may perceive that the thermostat’s goal is to maintain the room temperature at a constant value, the thermostat does not have a goal per se. It does not stay ON to ensure that the temperature is maintained at a constant value. Instead, it turns ON when the temperature goes outside a limit. The thermostat negatively “moves away” from the outside range value of the temperature and stays ON until it is inside a determined range. The thermostat acts only when it hits a constraint or it is guided by the restraint, to use Bateson’s language. It is not a movement towards a goal temperature of say 70 degrees F, but rather a movement away from a current temperature of say 68 degrees F. Larry Richards explained this wonderfully:

Any system with constraints appears to have a purpose as there are outcomes precluded from the set of possibilities. 

Another example we can consider is that of driving a car. When you drive a car, you apply gas or brake only when needed. You don’t steer the car to try to keep it running in a straight line. You engage when the car is moving towards the edges of your lane. To continuously work towards a goal requires high energy, and a person driving is not suitable for this.

This idea of cybernetic explanation brings forth valuable insights when we look at social systems such as an organization. Richards proposes that assigning or designing a purpose for a social system can lead to problems.

I suggest avoiding or suspending… the idea of purpose. The idea of teleological systems – that systems have a purpose first, with structure following – implies that systems are created or evolve to achieve a goal or objective.

The problem in Second Order Cybernetics arises when the observers/designers specify the purpose of their designs, giving conscious intent to their actions. Gregory Bateson (1972a, 1972b) warned of the dysfunctions of conscious purpose when the actions taken do not and cannot account for all the ecological circularities of the situation and the unanticipated consequences inherent in taking such actions. Yet, humans have needs, desires, preferences and values; we are self-aware of our actions and alternatives; and, we can act with intent to satisfy our needs and desires. To act without self-awareness of our desires and the possible consequences of our actions would be irresponsible. 

 Richards advises to look for present constraints that guide actions.

Specifying a set of constraints treats desires as a spatial concept, focusing attention on the states we wish to exclude from happening, leaving open a space of possible outcomes deemed currently acceptable. This approach is present-oriented, merging ends and means: the set of constraints that represent our desires and the actions we take to avoid what we do not want are here and now, and our evaluation of possible consequences is based on current best available knowledge. Our desires, actions and evaluations can change as we experiment, learn and change, making it important to be careful about excluding outcomes that could become useful as circumstances change. Treating desires as constraints and intention as an awareness of desires as constraints opens the door for an alternative to the consciousness of purpose about which Bateson was concerned.

The idea of cybernetic explanation and constrains raise the importance of dialogue amongst the coparticipants of the social realm. Rather than going after a narrow purpose, we may be better served if we can explore the space of constraints to identify conditions that promote outcomes that we desire. When we utilize a constancy of purpose, we are utilizing a narrow view that is not able to accommodate the various interpretations and desires of the many coparticipants of our social realm. Bateson viewed the pursuit of conscious purpose as being damaging to the very ecology that supports being human. (Klaus Krippendorff). Krippendorff came out with an Empirical Imperative to support this idea:

Empirical Imperative: Invent as many alternative constructions as you can and actively explore the constraints on their affordances.

I will finish with more wise words from Richards that provides further insights about cybernetic explanation:

If I know what I want and I know it is possible to achieve it, I do not need cybernetics—I just go and do what I need to do to achieve the outcome. However, when I only have a vague idea about what I want or do not want and I do not know how to pursue or avoid it in the current society, the vocabulary of cybernetics can be useful. Cybernetics is not about success and the achievement of goals; it is about the reconfiguration of constraints (resources) in order to make possible what was not previously possible, including the avoidance of what was previously inevitable. 

Please maintain social distance and wear masks. Stay safe and Always keep on learning…

In case you missed it, my last post was Complexity – Only When You Realize You Are Blind, Can You See: