Desirable Ethics

This column is concerned with the promotion of cybernetics through an examination of the ethical consequences (implications) of certain cybernetic devices. This journal is the ideal place to try to do this. Not only does it recognise that less usual arguments can have special value, but also it has a history of concern for the ethical. Indeed, in the very ?rst issue, Heinz von Foerster presented his thesis on Ethics and Second Order Cybernetics (von Foerster, 1992) and Ole Thyssen developed his interpretation of von Foerster's notions in his Ethics as Second Order Morality (Thyssen, 1992).