Cybernetics 3.0: Action-Based Impact Measurement

Human Act Informatics creates software that helps organizations analyze their systems based on real actions, especially in settings that affect society. Our approach uses Cybernetics 3.0, a modern take on cybernetics that focuses on understanding systems through human actions.

The evolution of cybernetics over time progressed from the first version, which focused on controlling systems from the outside using feedback. The second version recognized that people observing the system are part of it and can affect what happens. The third version focuses on human actions and builds models to see how these actions change systems over time. This approach puts human actions at the center of analysis and measurement.

Our business model is about making action measurable. Most organizations manage by tracking indicators, KPIs, output metrics, and satisfaction scores. These numbers show what happened, but not why. You see wait times increasing, but not which decisions caused the delay. You know revenue changed, but not which priorities or trade-offs produced those results. We take a different approach. Instead of just measuring outcomes, we model the actions that create them, the daily decisions, priorities, and routines that actually drive performance. When you understand how action patterns generate results over time, you can stop reacting to indicators and start shaping the system itself.

Our approach is grounded in Cybernetics 3.0, a framework developed and articulated by Fernando Flores Morador in a two-volume work.

Flores Morador, Fernando. El Hacedor y el tiempo. Cibernética 3.0. Volumen I: Polarizaciones. 2021.
Flores Morador, Fernando. El Hacedor y el tiempo. Cibernética 3.0. Volumen II: Levitaciones. 2022.

The framework moves beyond traditional feedback models by treating human action as the basic unit of analysis, enabling measurement of how systems change over time. Copies of El Hacedor y el tiempo. Cibernética 3.0 is available through Human Act Informatics upon request or via Amazon.

Selected References

Ashby, W. Ross. An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman & Hall, 1956.

Conant, Roger C., and W. Ross Ashby. "Every Good Regulator of a System Must Be a Model of That System." International Journal of Systems Science 1, no. 2 (1970): 89–97.

Flores Morador, Fernando. El Hacedor y el tiempo. Cibernética 3.0. Vols. I–II. 2021–2022.

von Foerster, Heinz. Cybernetics of Cybernetics. Urbana, IL: Biological Computer Laboratory, 1974.

Wiener, Norbert. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1948.