Cybernetics is the science/art of "steering", how systems can be designed for self-control. It appears that until now it was missing the simple trick for when & how to turn off growth, and the corollary principle that growth without other limit results in a general loss of control. It's the intuitively obvious principle, 'just don't overdo it', with a more specific meaning in relation to the physical mechanisms of complex system feedback. Maybe it's been so hidden because it amounts to the secret of life. What's happening in those systems that exhibit true self-control is not so complicated, but appears hidden in sight for human observers. You need the concept of 'enough', and to switch the resource for expansion to maintenance and stewardship. Whether teaching the global economic growth system how to stabilize will turn civilization into the new kind self-controlled living thing one might dream of, is anyone's guess. Still, it could be a means of survival where our survival seems directly threatened by our system's lack of self-restraint. Showing the smart money of the world how to do it might be the only way to keep humanity's rapid evolution and our burden on the earth from going seriously out of control. It would appear that our 5-600 years of exponential growth are at a limit. If we level off we might continue evolving culturally and economically at near our present size and speed as a stable and sustainable process for a long time. Continuing to explosively accelerate our rate of expansion and change, and burdens on the earth, will leave us confused by the blur of emergencies and cause us to make a complete mess of ourselves and the earth
As a model one can use the common business plan. Growth is produced by reinvesting the positive returns of the business. Then as in many family businesses, when the returns are enough they are devoted to something else. Those returns come from the natural systems beyond the control of those in the business, like the fish for the fisherman. Returning more than the sum of the parts, the system produces a surplus along with a debt of stewardship to the natural capital that produced it, for how the surplus is used. For larger business's there is no point of 'enough' and profits are always plowed back into whatever gives an expectation of multiplying returns. The transition to stability comes at either failure or a point of choice, diverting the excess earnings from expanding operations to doing other things which are a value unto themselves, without returns. Simply stated, the principle of growth is "reinvest the returns" and the principle of stability is, "at your point of choice, spend the returns", expressing your true values. The reason a lack of self-control over growth can result in chaos is simply that the multiplying demands on the environment and the investor's lagging responses will produce widely distributed cascades of errors.
If you throw a party there is always that early period in the evening when you wonder if it will ever get going at all! Almost always there's a point where it magically picks up and starts getting lively. Still, you don't want that reverberating positive feedback of little interpersonal thrills to continue stimulating everyone until things get too wild and go out of control. People are bound to have many different preferences for their style of approaching the limits of excitement. Some will be very conservative, and some outrageous and experimental. Each makes the exact same judgment of self-control, however, carefully watching and perhaps guiding events toward their preferred distance from the fine line between rich play and disaster.
The rapid complex evolution of mankind that began in the early Renaissance has given us modern styles, wealth, ideas and science. That no one apparently noticed, and we've been operating without an understanding of the principle of self-control,... is practically beyond belief. What reason could we possibly have to set about to destroy ourselves with our own success? There is no such reason, but that's exactly what we're in the process of doing. It would appear we've just being completely fooled by a rather simple trick of nature. Why we missed it is an absorbing question, but not the most important one given the likely approaching catastrophes. It seems more likely that we'll make the best of the situation by simply making the best of the situation, and thinking about our stewardship of the place nature made for us. The principal of self-control is such a simple thing, and of utterly enormous consequence if we catch it in time. Yea, it's a little bigger challenge than we're used to... seeing as we need to redesign our whole life support system. The idea is simple, but the task isn't, and there'll no doubt be many detours and surprises along the way.
pfh