What Lies Concealed in the Roots of Cybernetics: The Renewal of Early Greek Thinking of Being as Physis in Martin Heidegger and Edgar Morin

Abstract

In the Post-War period, cybernetics came to assume the role of unifying ground of science and technology. In doing so, it not only usurped philosophy, but also replaced the basic concepts of philosophy (being, existence, becoming, appearing, etc.) with those of cybernetics (information, communication, control, feedback, etc.). And yet, as both Heidegger and Morin each in their different ways make clear, there lies concealed in the roots of cybernetics the possibility of a renewed thinking of being, and more specifically of being as physis, where physis is understood as self-production. Articulating the parallel thinking of being as physis proposed by Heidegger and Morin, I argue that this articulation makes it possible to overcome the characteristically metaphysical division of being from becoming, appearing, and existing that originated with Parmenides, thus also making possible the emergence of a ‘new beginning’ capable of overcoming the unprecedented danger to being posed by modern technology.