THE CYBERNETICS OF GORDON PASK

Abstract

For convenience of exposition (and publication) this review of the work of Gordon Pask is in two parts, ordered chronologically. The first part concludes with reference to a seminal paper (Park 1969a) in which Pask argued the need for a cybernetics which could successfully address itself, in a full-blooded sense, to the problem of human cognition and consciousness. The requirements to be met by such a theory were spelled out; their statement represented the distillation of Park’s work as a cybernetician which, at that stage, already spanned nearly two decades. Pask responded to his own challenge and in the following years (in association with Kallikourdis and Scott) produced what he, himself, recognises as his major work: conversation theory and its several applications in education and decision making (v ICNL 7 for a recent statement of progress by the research team). Conversation theory and its chief areas of application are addressed in Part 2 of this article.