Story: Improve cybernetics documentation

Table of Contents

This page documents a story in Sprint 18. It captures the goal, current status, acceptance criteria, and the tasks that compose it.

Goal

Deliver three bundled documentation improvements to the cybernetics meta-layer:

  1. A standalone cybernetics summary page (doc/meta/cybernetics.org) that explains what cybernetics is and replaces the bare Wikipedia link currently used in several docs.
  2. Expand Cybernetic Levels (doc/meta/cybernetic_levels.org) with a section on how ORE Studio's approach connects to and diverges from Beer's Viable System Model, including known limitations.
  3. A new Viable System Model knowledge page (doc/meta/viable_system_model.org) introducing Beer's VSM, linked from Cybernetic Levels and the cybernetics summary.

The three pages form a coherent reading path: cybernetics (concept) → VSM (the model) → Cybernetic Levels (how we apply it in ORE Studio).

Status

Field Value
State DONE
Parent sprint Sprint 18
Now Nothing.
Waiting on
Next
Last touched 2026-05-29

Acceptance

  • [ ] doc/meta/cybernetics.org created as a v2 knowledge doc; covers what cybernetics is, key ideas (feedback, regulation, variety), Stafford Beer's contribution, and how it informs ORE Studio.
  • [ ] doc/meta/viable_system_model.org created as a v2 knowledge doc; introduces the five VSM systems and the 3* audit channel; links to Cybernetic Levels.
  • [ ] doc/meta/cybernetic_levels.org expanded: new section explains where ORE Studio's mapping aligns with and departs from canonical VSM, and lists known limitations.
  • [ ] Existing Wikipedia cybernetics links in the repo replaced with in-repo id-links where a suitable page now exists.
  • [ ] doc/meta/meta.org index updated to list both new pages.

Tasks

Task State Start End Description
Improve cybernetics documentation DONE 2026-05-28 2026-05-29 Create cybernetics.org, viable_system_model.org; expand cybernetic_levels.org
Spike: capture promotion runbook and compass support DONE 2026-05-28 2026-05-29 Runbook + compass evaluate for promoting a capture to a story (UUID inheritance, content population, cleanup)

Decisions

Out of scope

  • Deeper changes to the ORE Studio execution model or agile process.
  • A full academic treatment of VSM.

Emacs 29.1 (Org mode 9.6.6)