Published: March 2026

Keywords:
Computation (beyond calculation), Algorithm / Algorithmic thinking, Reductionism vs complexity, Explicit vs tacit knowledge, Embodiment / embodied cognition, Artificial intelligence (functionalism critique), Systems thinking, Self-organisation, Homeostasis, Cognitive processes, Information and abstraction, Deterministic chaos, Model vs reality, Communication as process (not transmission), Shannon – Weaver model (critique), Context and interpretation, Recursivity in communication, Social construction of reality, Communication and community, Luhmann’s systems theory, Pearce’s coordination – coherence – mystery, Petri’s communication disciplines, Meaning - making, Epistemology of complexity, Human – machine interaction.

Umberta Telfener

Umberta Telfener: Teacher of the Milan Approach, current President of EFTA, former adjunct Professor at the postgraduate School of Health Psychology of the University of Roma La Sapienza. She supervises Institutions and Community work and has been in private practice since 1980. utelfener@gmail.com

Luca Casadio

Luca Casadio, psychologist and psychotherapist, worked as a managing psychologist for the USL. He teaches in several graduate schools and has published some books and numerous articles. Including: "Systemics: voices and paths in complexity", with Umberta Telfener and the supervision of Heinz von Foerster, Bollati Boringhieri, 2003, "Between Bateson and Bion, at the roots of relational thinking", Antigone editions, 2010. Regarding the relationship between art and psychology has published: "The images of the mind: for a psychoanalysis of cinema, art and literature" Franco Angeli, 2004, and "The art of psychotherapy and the psychology of art", Mimesis, 2015.

Abstract

Short Introductory Summary

This text explores computation and communication as foundational processes in systemic thinking, moving beyond their conventional technical meanings. Computation is not only algorithmic calculation but a broader activity of organising, transforming, and modelling reality, deeply linked to human attempts to simplify and formalise knowledge. However, purely computational (algorithmic) approaches are shown to be limited, especially when confronted with the complexity, embodiment, and contextual nature of living systems and human cognition.

The text contrasts explicit, rational, algorithmic knowledge with implicit, embodied, and experiential knowledge, arguing that much of human intelligence - and life itself - operates through non-computable, context - dependent processes. This critique extends to artificial intelligence, highlighting the insufficiency of disembodied, purely symbolic models of mind.

In parallel, communication is redefined from a simple transmission of information to a relational, contextual, and recursive process that constructs social reality and community. Different theoretical perspectives (e.g., Shannon, Petri, Pearce, Luhmann) reveal communication as dynamic, interpretative, and self - referential, where meaning emerges through interaction rather than being merely transmitted.

Overall, the text situates both computation and communication within a systemic, epistemological shift: from reductionism and control toward complexity, embodiment, context, and the co-construction of reality.

SISTEMICA Entries

ISSUE 33

Abduction, Structural Coupling, Adaption

ISSUE 34

Art, Expectation, Autonomy

ISSUE 35

An Outline of Bateson’s Ideas (in collaboration with Giovanni Madonna), The evolution of Bateson’s ideas

ISSUE 36

Self-Organization, Autopoiesis / Allopoiesis, Self-Reference, Self-Value, Biosphere / Ecosphere / Noosphere

ISSUE 37

The Paradigm of Complexity-1st part

ISSUE 38

The Paradigm of Complexity-2nd part, Chaos

ISSUE 39

Constructivism

ISSUE 40

Observer/Subject, I/We, Self/Selves

ISSUE 41

Data/Capta, Decision/Choice, Rationality, Deconstruction/Deconstructionism, Thick Description, Description/Explanation

ISSUE 42

Narration, Story, Metaphor/Analogy

ISSUE 43

Catastrophe Theory, Cause/Effect, Causality/Circularity, Circular Questions, Uroboros, Cybernetic Brain, Brain-Mind

ISSUE 46

Change/Homeostasis, Calibration, Change/Necessity

ISSUE 47

Control, Bizarre Reflexive Circuit

ISSUE 48

Complexity, Understanding