Abstract
In this article a second order cybernetics classification of natural, social, technological, and semiological systems is elaborated. While natural and social systems are autopoietical or second order cybernetic systems in that they produce not only their own elements and relations, but also their own conditionality, or - as Kant puts it - their own purpose, technological and semiological systems - artificial systems - are heteropoietical or first order cybernetic systems: they may or may not produce their elements and relations, but they are not conditionalised themselves. Finally, higher order artificial systems e.g. second order technological and semiological systems or "semi-autopoietical systems" (examples such as artificial intelligence and recursive pieces of music, respectively) are briefly characterised. While internally they produce their own condition in order for example to "mimic" a natural or a social system, externally they are conditionalised by the social system: their purpose is to mimic, it is not themselves.
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