Harish Jose

When we come to value epistemic humility, we see that we do not see what we do not see. #CyberneticConstructivism

Hat tip to HvF.

seductive appeal of ontological frameworks lies in their promise of certainty. They offer false comfort of believing we can transcend our limitations as observers & access reality directly. this promise is precisely what makes them epistemologically arrogant
#EpistemicHumility vs #EpistemicArrogance

The below concepts are imo.

-The change in system structure → structural coupling / structural change
-The resulting capacity to distinguish → structural readiness
-The activation/use of that capacity → information
-The integration of distinction into meaningful experience or action → transduction

Distinction is not the same as information. Distinction is the structural capacity to register difference, shaped by structural coupling. Information arises when that capacity is engaged & the difference is transduced into system’s own domain of meaning. Capacity can exist w/o immediate information

Brilliant!

In your yellow–green example, the system’s structure has already changed through history so that the distinction is possible. The “first” experience of yellow is not the creation of the distinction but the first use of it. So, Distinction is the readiness and information is its activation.

The experience of “green” is an internal, operationally closed event. Wavelengths do not say “green.” The organism’s framework experiences them as green. To do this, it must already distinguish green from non-green. The distinction is the condition for the information.

My latest venture with my good friend Venky. Published by another good friend @laraghavan.bsky.social

Connecting the Dots… Reflections on the Toyota Production System

I have found that connecting dots across fields deepens our understanding of the subject at hand.

#TPS #RespectForHumanity

Distinction leads to information, and information feeds back to refine our distinctions. The same distinction can yield different information at different times because our history shapes what the distinction means to us.

The capacity to distinguish and the emergence of information are co-arising, not sequential. Saying one must come strictly before the other is like asking whether walking comes before balance or balance before walking. They evolve together in the context of embodied engagement.

Thank you, Ben!

New Book: Connecting the Dots… Reflections on The Toyota Production System – Jose and Krishnamurthy (2025) Guest Post by Harish Jose and Venky + Exclusive Podcast Laksh RaghavanAugust 03, 2025 I’m super excited to announce the details of an upcoming book co-authored by Harish Jose and Ven…

New Book: Connecting the Dots… Reflections on The Toyota Production System – Jose and Krishnamurthy (2025) stream.syscoi.com/2025/08/03/n...

The future is invented every second. Invent a better one- Hari Seldon (Foundation TV series)

If it was not clear… Making distinctions is a relational act. As Bateson observed, information is a difference that makes a difference… but to whom? He did not add that qualifier, but it is implied. For a difference to make a difference, there must be someone/cognitive system to whom it matters.

This isn’t anthropocentric in the sense of privileging humans. It applies to any observing system. The key insight is that information emerges relationally, between system and environment, rather than existing as a property of either alone.

The environment has perturbation potential. It is just that without an observer the potential never gets actualized. The potential actively constrains and enables what can emerge. But perturbation becomes information only when it makes a difference to a system capable of making distinctions.

the etymology of “information” goes back to its Latin roots. The two Latin words are “in” and “formare”. Taken together, the meaning of “information” is something like – to give shape or form to something.

The point is that variation exists in the world does not automatically becomes information.

It is not the world that informs us. It is we who, through our distinctions, in-form the world.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

#CyberneticConstructivism

The -isms of a Man Who Rejected -isms: In today’s post, I am exploring one of the most fascinating aspects of Heinz von Foerster’s work: his complete rejection of philosophical labels and -isms. Von Foerster, the Austrian-Am…

My latest post - The -isms of a Man Who Rejected -isms:

You are the Copernican revolution. The observer is not the center of the universe, but every observation necessarily has them at its center.

#HvF #CyberneticConstructivism

harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/t...

YouTube video by Harish Jose Heidegger, Systems Thinking, and Cybernetics

Third in the series… Heidegger, Systems Thinking, and Cybernetics

#NLM #Heidegger #Cybernetics

youtube.com/watch?v=fYIs...

YouTube video by Harish Jose The Arbitrariness of Objectivism

Checking out NLM for my posts. They did a fine job.

Check this out - Arbitrariness of Objectivism, A Deep Dive

#CyberneticConstructivism #Pluralism

youtu.be/Q2X0zOIumQQ?...

The Right Thing and the Right Reason: In today’s post, I am exploring the notion of “doing the right thing.” We encounter this expectation everywhere in workplaces, personal relationships, and civic life. The phrase a…

harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/25/t...

This is the illusion of completeness in the right thing, the comforting belief that something can be fully correct. It persists because thought gives us a sense of closure that reality cannot guarantee.

#CyberneticConstructivism #HvF

We call gravity a law, yet apples fell long before Newton wrote his equations. The law is Newton’s construct, not the apple’s. Laws are abstractions we create to make sense of patterns. They are, dare I say, useful ‘fictions’ that help us navigate complexity.

A Good Enough Post: In today’s post, I am exploring the notion that viability depends on our capacity for action, and that this capacity may not entirely rely on having a perfect grasp of “Truth.” This possibility, dr…

My latest post - A Good Enough Post

Engaging with complexity means getting better at being good enough, continuously.

harishsnotebook.wordpress.com/2025/07/18/a...

2/2 Perfect accuracy would require matching the full variety of the environment, which no finite cognitive framework can achieve. Organisms filter and abstract in ways that make action possible. #Pragmatism and #Cybernetics go hand in hand.

1/2 From evolution, we see that Survival does not require absolute truth. It requires adequacy. Nervous systems evolved to attenuate complexity, not to copy it. #CyberneticConstructivism

Informational Closure explained easily. 😀

4/4 Leadership, then, is not about transmitting clarity. It is about creating conditions where new patterns become possible. A form of leadership that supports reorientation so that desired outcomes emerge as attractor states.

3/4 What happens next is determined by the internal structure of the entity and its history. Meaning is not transmitted. Meaning is generated internally.

2/4 Cybernetics offers a different perspective. A core principle is that entities are informationally closed. They cannot receive information as it is. They can only be perturbed by external events.