Metaphorum 2026 · Emerging Methods and Tools, and Contemporary Practice

Viability: A Way of Being

John Beckford recalls Stafford Beer as a, very human, human being with the articulation of his arguments most easily understood through conversation. Beer’s evident care for humankind was expressed through the philosophy of ‘viability,’ a way of thinking rather than an alternative way of organising, a way of being rather than just a way of doing. The structural elements of Beer’s Viable System Model being a representation of activities necessary for survival rather than an alternative means of control, the pursuit of viability seeks to continuously dissolve the tension between any system, its metasystem and its environment. Building on this insight leads to participatory approaches to developing the idea of viability with people and organisations especially through the development of shared mental models. Complementing this is the recognition that cybernetics is, in human organisations, about behaviour and ethics. Developing from this is Dudley's trialogue, a reformulation of the notion of the meta-system into a multi-partite conversation continuously resolving the tensions between current and future selves through clarity of identity and purpose. If humankind is to thrive, cyberneticians need to consider more Beer’s philosophy of human well-being and less the puritanical and mechanistic adherence to a particular organisational form. Focusing on what the pursuit of viability means for human behaviour, liberty and interaction and being pragmatic in application will deliver much to a society being repressed by over-centralised governance and ultimately oppressive applications of technology. We must learn to pursue effectiveness and survival through the application and development of cybernetic ideas. The style of this chapter is deliberately conversational – though the structure follows the key threads that the editors proposed could usefully be addressed. It consciously minimises the use of titles, sub-titles and connective tissue but is rigorously referenced to enable the interested reader to pursue the multiple threads of thought. Speaker: John Beckford — Beckford Consulting

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