The
world can be conceived of as a self-contained, self-sustaining
system. Picture in this respect a small self-contained
ecosystem of ferns and mosses enclosed in a glass vessel,
admitting only sunlight from the outside world. Proceed
from this example to the conceptualization of a self-contained
world of actions and consequent reactions. The moral
world might be part of this world.
Organisms,
animals, and humans share a common cybernetic environment.
As organic life has evolved over billions of years, an
intricate system of relationships and dependencies between
biological systems has developed. Among these are relationships
between individuals, groups of individuals, and between
humans and other life forms in the environment. Theoretically,
every living system has some influence on every other
system in large or small ways. If the emergence of ethical
systems can be reasonably linked to these relationships,
the resulting moral theory will be extraordinarily complex.
But no matter how complex it may seem, if the evolution
of ethical systems is in fact based upon cybernetic principles,
it can be reduced by mathematics to understandable proportions.
Cybernetic
ethics is a way of viewing the evolution of ethical systems
in terms of the informational feedback certain human
actions generate. Feedback can arise from the consequences
of specific actions that are easily observable, or from
a change in a "state of affairs" that has slowly
evolved as a result of the accumulation of formerly unseen
problems. Examples of what might cause this might be
seen in the excesses of human immaturity and selfishness.
Although it could be said that these causes are the result
of some earlier cause or neglect, for purposes of illustration
they are cited here as immediate causes.
People
have observed the behavior of other people for thousands
of years. When certain negative effects that accompany
particular behaviors repeatedly manifest themselves,
those behaviors become prominent memories firmly implanted
in the societal memory. As this memory becomes enlarged,
it sets in motion a counterforce to contain behaviors
that consistently cause social problems. Much of morality
in this respect is parental in nature because the impetus
for creating restrictions tends to come from more mature
and experienced people. Some of this parental urge comes
from the observation that time appears irreversible.
You cannot put the bullet that killed someone back in
the gun, nor wish away an automobile accident as though
it had not happened. But tragic circumstances sometimes
reconcile themselves in the good they inspire in the
behavior of civilized people. The recurrence of a similar
tragedy is many times prevented by the constructive remembrance
of specific behaviors that led to trouble and those that
did not. This conscious process of civilization building
can be seen in the proliferation of many types of formal
and informal rule systems. Counted among these are moral,
manner, legal, and customary rule systems.
Human
beings are born immature and thus cannot be expected
to know morally proper behavior without guidance. With
immaturity comes expressions of selfishness that are
a natural part of life. But the aggressive nature of
selfishness and immaturity would soon undo all the refinements
and achievements of civilization if there were not some
counterforce to thwart it. People more or less define
themselves by an intricate web of relationships. Security
and success often depend on a support system of interpersonal
relationships. If excesses of immaturity and selfishness
arise, these otherwise harmonious relationships can fall
into conflict or even deadly violence. Mature adults
are sensitized by the prevailing moral sentiments, education,
and laws to recognize selfishness that has crossed over
the line of propriety. These sentiments represent complex
abstractions of what constitutes fair play given certain
established boundaries of behavior. They are not defined
in a book; rather they are learned and accepted through
experience.
Selfishness
is contained by the continued societal memory of it in
each generation. When a person repeatedly crosses over
boundaries of acceptable behavior, he or she generates
feedback that can be detected by others. For instance,
a person can easily cheat another in a business transaction,
but if that sort of exaggerated selfishness continues,
he or she acquires a reputation that arises as a function
of feedback that slows the person's ability to continue
to defraud people endlessly.
Reference
points and boundaries guide human development as mechanisms
of the cybernetic process. Some reference points are
more important than others, given time and circumstances.
A superordinate reference point might be viewed as the
collective or individual urge of human beings to survive.
This paramount concern sets the conditions by which smaller
concerns evolve. Whether they are subordinate or superordinate
in nature, they all appear to exist to maximize survival,
minimize human harm, and avoid extinction.
In
conventional ethics, reference points are not described
as such; rather, they are expressed in terms of values.
These values represent models of behavior, whether they
are economic, educational, moral, or social. But here
ethics is being placed into a context of cybernetics.
Thus, the idea of morals evolving as reference points
must be addressed in order to efficiently convey an understanding
of ethical evolution. To illustrate the importance of
reference points in a cybernetic system, one need only
look at the operation of an autopilot that guides an
aircraft without the pilot's intervention. Planes ordinarily
lift off with a specific destination in mind. The desired
destination is translated into a set of coordinates and
downloaded into the autopilot's memory. These mathematical
coordinates thus become superordinate reference points
by which all subsequent behaviors of the aircraft's control
systems are evaluated and acted upon. The coordinates
defining the destination can be changed, but until they
are, any deviation in the flight path of the aircraft
will generate electronic feedback forcibly keeping the
flight path in correspondence with the programmed coordinates.
Autopilots
can be designed to be more sophisticated than this. For
instance, a plane may not be able to fly directly to
its destination because such a path would violate some
nation's airspace. Thus, secondary coordinates in this
autopilot system could be set to conform to a pattern
of behavior causing the airplane to avoid a boundary
the plane cannot cross over. By this construction in
reasoning, reference points and boundaries are seen as
determinants of the right and wrong behavior of the airplane's
control system. In the same way, the important values
of a culture contribute greatly to the perception of
behavioral right and wrong.
Three
superordinate reference points that guide human behavior
can be thought of as: 1. Concern for individual survival.
2. Concern for the survival of the entire culture. 3.
Abstract or transcendent concerns that enhance the quality
of life. This last concern adds meaning to existence
that might not otherwise occur, further strengthening
the cultural or individual will to survive and thrive.
Tension arises between important values such as these,
which ultimately determines which values will prevail,
when they will prevail, and under what circumstances.
Human experience is a living situation and so are the
dynamics of the values that guide them. The evolution
of formal morals, manners, laws, and customs is essentially
an end product of centuries of human effort to find a
tolerable balance among all of the demands of living.
This never-ending process of cultural refinement reconciles
the clash of many values, while still trying to hold
onto the most important ones.
In
order that the maximum number of important values be
retained in the life of a person (or that person's culture),
there must be some organizing protocol. This is ordinarily
done by prioritizing one's activities and setting reasonable
goals. The more dependable the routines are that can
be incorporated into such a strategy, the more likely
the goals are to be achieved because of a built-in systemic
efficiency. To illustrate this, one might look at the
lives of young students attempting to enter the highly
competitive world of professional medicine. Here they
are under tremendous pressure to meet the demands of
their course load. Unless they are extraordinarily talented,
or possess tremendous physical and emotional energy,
they must find an effective, simplifying algorithm of
behavior to achieve their ends. When time, energy, and
income are in short supply for the average person, it
is necessary to be extremely efficient if that person
is to compete with gifted people. Thus for many medical
school applicants, excessive party-going and substance
abuse would be deleterious to reaching their goal.
The
end result of this type of planning creates in effect
a secondary set of moral rules by which students begin
to guide their lives. If excessive party-going severely
impinges upon their ability to successfully compete,
a violation of their commitment to reach a goal will
be felt from the feedback of increasing failure in school.
Thus, every moment of time they invest in leisure activities
questions the sensibleness of that investment based on
a model of behavior they have previously established.
There
are many reliable moral, professional, and educational
models to choose from, replete with their own internal
values. Since human experience spans thousands of years,
many varieties of moral models and lifestyles have already
been tested for their inherent moral worth. What comes
with the adoption of tested and reliable ways are behaviors
which work around destructive feedback, and so help people attain
their goals.
Ethical
rules evolve from dynamic circumstances. In theory, these
situations can be quantified (or can approach reasonable
quantification) in the same way that an engineer reduces
natural phenomena in electrical or mechanical engineering
to workable principles. Quantification in the moral realm
essentially comes down to making the most reasonable
choices under a given set of circumstances. Some choices
are better than others if certain fundamental values
can be agreed upon. Thus, choices can be evaluated as
to their inherent worth in a systematic way.
The
situation of the premedical students illustrates a simple
moral dynamic. But human experience is more complex and
fast-moving than this simple illustration allows. Decisions
people have made in the past affect social conditions
in the present. Many marginal choices made over years
can create an ever-escalating array of obstacles to overcome.
For instance, if a person gains a reputation for exploiting
other people and businesses for money, such behavior
eventually leads to a poor credit record. A poor credit
report in turn leaves that person at a disadvantage when
he or she genuinely needs money in an emergency. Thus,
the reputation a person builds today can impair his or
her ability to move forward in society tomorrow.
Some
categories of decisions have a more profound affect on
people's lives than others. Human situations involving
sex, wealth, status, and power can, and many times do,
lead to high emotions. When several emotionally charged
situations converge at the same time, a person can be
driven to emotional instability. Since, in theory, all
of human experience can be broken down into separate
but interlocking systems, destructive emotional oscillations
in one system can affect the stability of other systems.
To
illustrate the systemic nature of human experience, it
is easy to visualize the difference between the human
physiological system and a marital system. Physiological
problems can lead to instability in a person's marital
situation or vice versa. The human body has informational
feedback loops that sustain it, and so does a healthy,
growing family. High emotions can interfere with the
perception of needed informational feedback in all interlocking
systems. Thus, an emotionally charged situation can undermine
the stability and tranquility of other systems such as
family life, professional life, or the many delicate
systems of the body that comprise human physiology.
Ordinary
human experience can be defined by a complex matrix of
interrelated systems working together in synchronization.
Each system is sustained by a cybernetic process that
can be destroyed by the intrusive nature of extreme stress
and emotions. Given the possibility that this may be
true, it is easy to see why centuries of observation
have repeatedly affirmed the moral view that sex, wealth,
and power are forces in human affairs that require wariness.
Inverting
established values leads to conflicts between human systems
that ordinarily work in harmony. If a student bound for
a prestigious university really is intent on being accepted,
why would he place hedonistic pleasures before the business
of studying? People tend to invert their values when
they think they are getting something for nothing. An
aggressive male who is simply out for a night's fun may
think at the time he is getting away with something by
taking advantage of a naive woman. But his exploitative
intents may inspire a counterforce of powerful emotions
from a woman incensed by the affair. What the man might
have thought he was getting was some easy sexual pleasure,
but instead he has become involved in an emotional struggle
that ultimately impairs his ability to concentrate on
his studies.
In
sum, there is a logic to the way that mature people organize
their lives that lends a priority to certain activities.
These ways of living become known and respected for what
they produce. Behaviors such as these that have endured
for centuries eventually become part of the foundation
of the cultural morality. Since so many problems revolve
around the strong passions that sex, wealth, and power
produce, the presence of passion in the actions of immature
people is a highly predictable phenomenon. The systemic
feedback these situations produce are some of the most
powerful experienced by human beings. Their predictability
throughout centuries of human experience inspires the
notion that there is a sense of mathematics to it all,
which shows people how to behave and what the consequences
will be for such behaviors.