HOW ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND AND MAP THE NETWORK OF SOCIAL FORCES BEHIND THE AUTOPOIETIC PROCESSES WHICH APPEAR TO BE HEADING OUR SPECIES TOWARD EXTINCTION, CARRYING THE PLANET AS WE KNOW IT WITH US – AND HOW ARE WE TO DESIGN A MORE EFFECTIVE SOCIOCYBERNETIC SYSTEM FOR SOCIETAL MANAGEMENT?

This paper is designed to set the scene for a discussion of the topics mentioned in the title. It opens by listing some of the problems that confront us if we are to survive as a species, underlining that these form a system such that they cannot be tackled separately. Nor can they be tackled via centrally decreed, ideologically based, system wide change. One needs to understand the network of sociocybernetic forces and feedback processes involved. These comprise an autopoietic system having selfextending characteristics.