CYBERNETIC MODELLING THROUGH HIERARCHICAL MULTILEVEL SYSTEMS AND ADAPTIVE CONTROL

A cybernetic model is one which greatly reduces the variety of the world situation that should be represented by the model, but the variety is reduced in a way which will allow at least some of the variety to be represented later. The aim of this paper is to give an outline of an approach to operationalize Beer's principles of cybernetic modelling. This approach is based on the concept of a system that represents a multilevel system of hierarchical structure with a considerable potential for latent variety, and the principles for adaptive and multigoal control. We do not aim at producing a unified theory, but at presenting a few ideas that could well be worth some research effort if we want to know how to deal with the complexes of means, ends and inter‐influences we often enough try to consider in a cybernetic model.