Imagine standing at the crossroads of the present, peering into the fog that shrouds the future. This is the metaphorical landscape Heinz von Foerster painted back in 1971, as he pondered the complex interplay between perception and the path we carve into tomorrow. His insights, though articulated decades ago, resonate with striking relevance in today's world—a world teetering on the precipice of relentless change.

Away From Critical Thinking

New ways of thinking about complex human problems are needed now more than ever, given the numerous existential threats we face today. For example, in 1967 Edward de Bono promoted lateral thinking as a concept that fosters creative problem-solving. It involves looking at problems from different angles rather than approaching them with traditional logical analysis. The process is about restructuring patterns, challenging established concepts, and provoking new ways of looking at things. It seeks to solve problems through an indirect and creative approach and involves ideas that may not be immediately obvious. Lateral thinking is often contrasted with critical thinking, which is more direct and traditional in its approach. While critical thinking relies on logic and the sequential evaluation of information, lateral thinking encourages out-of-the-box thinking, where the solution may not be immediately apparent from the information given as in the case of many issues facing us at present.

Heinz Von Foerster

Unfortunately, rarely quoted in the field of human change, Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian-American scientist whose work created a bridge between physics and philosophy, and he is recognized as the originator of second-order cybernetics. His ideas are enduring and offer us an exit strategy from our failed solutions.

Born in Vienna in 1911, he received his Ph.D. in physics and had notable intellectuals in his family, including Ludwig Wittgenstein. In the United States, he worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, becoming a professor and director of the avant-garde Biological Computer Laboratory. Von Foerster was an influential figure in cybernetics and worked with prominent thinkers such as John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener. His contributions spanned a variety of fields including computer science, artificial intelligence, epistemology and interactional-strategic psychotherapy.

At the heart of von Foerster's musings lies a fundamental question: How do our perceptions shape the problems we identify and the solutions we devise? He suggests that a problem isn't just a faulty outcome; it's often our interpretation of that outcome that is problematic. When a system's output doesn't align with our desires—even if the system is working perfectly—it's not just a call for a fix but should be seen as a signal for transformation. This poses a conundrum for change-averse individuals, setting the stage for an unsolvable problem.

The Asch Conformity Studies and Perception

Conducted by Solomon Asch in the 1950s, these experiments were pivotal in social psychology, demonstrating the power of conformity in groups. Asch set out to discover to what extent social pressure from a majority could affect a person to conform. In his experiments, participants were asked to match the length of a line on a card with one of three lines on a second card in front of a group. Unbeknownst to the actual participant, the rest of the group consisted of actors instructed to choose the incorrect line.

The experiments found that individuals often conformed to the group's wrong choice, despite it being incorrect, highlighting the strong influence of group pressure on individual judgment and the tendency of people to conform to what they perceive as a social norm, even against their senses. This fact remains today.

Truth Is a Liar’s Invention

Von Foerster cautioned us against the tranquilizing effect of accepted truths or truisms as they can numb us to realities, especially the reality that the future is not a mere continuation of the past. As we can see from numerous political debates and social issues around the world at present, in times of socio-cultural upheaval, clinging to the past as a predictor of the future leaves us unprepared and reactionary, rather than proactive and visionary. Problems are nature’s way of calling for new and more adaptive reactions: If we don't shape our future, we'll be shaped by it.

Learn How to See and You’ll Know How to Act

Von Foerster believed that our societal malaise was a perception epidemic, with symptoms manifesting as a decay in our ability to perceive correctly. Language, once a tool for clarity, has become a pathogen, spreading misunderstanding and insensitivity. This numbing towards our condition is a silent crisis, one that von Foerster believes is exacerbated by pervasive semantic or meaning confusion. This confusion, he explains, stems from a trio of mis-associations: we mistake processes for substances, relationships for qualities, and qualities for quantities. Education, from this perspective, can be seen as culpable for perpetuating these confusions. It often aims to mold students into predictable entities—trivial machines—rather than fostering their inherent capacity as complex, unpredictable beings full of creative potential as can also be seen in De Bono’s frustration with our emphasis on critical thinking.

Disrupt and Create

The antidote to this crisis is a paradigm shift in education and organisational learning. Imagine a system that nurtures legitimate questioning, where answers are not preordained but discovered through effective inquiry. This is the foundation for a society that recognises education and lifelong learning as essential, not a privilege, and views every individual as a wellspring of untapped potential. In essence, von Foerster's vision for the future is one of co-creation, where the collective aspirations and perceptions of society give shape to the world we wish to inhabit. It's a future that embraces change as an architect of progress, rather than an adversary.

Von Foerster’s reminder from Dostoevsky's, "The Brothers Karamazov," underscores the importance of keeping our doors open to the "troublemakers" of society—the visionaries and the dreamers, for it is through their courage to challenge the established norms that new paths to the future are illuminated, but these visionaries should not be blinding us with the rose-tinted light of the past, or be offering us some reheated vision, the likes of which can be found in the playbook of all and every tinpot dictator who has seen the light of day. They should offer us new ways of perceiving. It is this that will build a brighter future. In von Foerster's words, let there be vision, and with it, a bright new dawn.