ASC Conference Track 7, Conversational Confluences (American Society for Cybernetics Conference – August 3–7, 2026)
Organized by Arantzazu Saratxaga
This proposal outlines a collaboration within the ASC framework to create a collective
working space leading to a joint publication. The project explores the emancipatory potential
of second-order cybernetics as a response to the epistemological foundations of contemporary
algorithmic governance.
Algorithmic governance rests on the assumption that reality is objectively given, fully
modelable, and manageable through computation. This premise shifts epistemic authority to
algorithmic systems, treated as neutral producers of comprehensive knowledge. The
dominance of AI depends on the belief that algorithmic models generate objective truth.
Consequently, power is delegated to systems that claim neutrality while concealing their
selective operations. A “God’s eye” perspective emerges, legitimizing algorithmic authority
not only through performance but through an attributed status of objectivity and omniscience.
The track challenges this logic through second-order operative epistemology. Rather than
presuming objectivity, second-order cybernetics observes observation itself. It emphasizes
that every observation is selective and entails blind spots. Knowledge arises not from
representing reality but from reflecting on how observations are constructed. This perspective
questions the promises of transparency, automation, and total control.
The track will address central epistemological tensions: observation versus representation;
self-organization versus algorithmic determinism; transparency versus the blind spot of
observation; communication versus control; reflexivity versus automation; and uncertainty
versus the illusion of total calculability.
Drawing on cybernetic operative knowledge, the track aims to critically examine the
epistemological foundations of algorithmic power, expose their fragility, and open alternative
spaces for thought and action, laying the groundwork for a subsequent joint publication.
Keywords: AI, Epistemologies, Second Order