CYBERNETICS AND GENERAL SYSTEMS—A UNITARY SCIENCE?: (INFORMATION AND THE UNITY OF GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY AND CYBERNETICS)

Man has the propensity to seek, design, impose and maintain unities. These unities are at the interstice where man and his environment intersect. These unities are information. Hence, information (I) is defined as the goal‐directed (V−1) communicational intersect between a person (P) and his environment (E). That is: I = fV−1(P ∩ E). There are four generic information systems: (1) Symbolic Records; (2) Languages; (3) Disciplines; (4) Societal Knowledges. In the context of generic information systems, both general systems theory and cybernetic function as meta‐science (V−1). In effect these can produce equifinally identical science, thus inferring that general systems theory and cybernetics are unitary.