- How Fragments Disguised as Wholes Distort Algorithms, Policies, and the Fabric of Reality
Gihan Soliman
Cybernetic blindness—the systemic error of mistaking fragments for wholes—recurs across disciplines, from algorithms to ecology to quantum physics. Drawing on information theory, cybernetics, and systems thinking, this article shows how blindness arises whenever the observer’s role is ignored and partial signals are treated as complete. Engineering reduces information to uncertainty; biology treats it as instruction; physics embeds it in matter and energy—yet these definitions migrate across fields without translation, generating conceptual distortions.
Revisiting Schrödinger’s cat, relativity, and Hamilton’s rule, the paper reframes paradoxes and anomalies as failures to recognize embedded observers, ecological cycles, and systemic circularity. Altruism, often modelled as a genetic trade-off, is shown to be ecological and relational, with costs recycled into resilience. Modern systems—machine learning, policy dashboards, economic models—amplify these blind spots by scaling fragments into decision-making architectures. By situating these examples within the broader fragmentation of science, the article argues that circularity and complexity are not exceptions but the foundational architecture of reality. Overcoming cybernetic blindness requires cultivating awareness of wholeness, limitation, and the informational fabric of systems, and developing a cross-disciplinary “Rosetta Stone” to translate concepts across scientific domains.
Cybernetics, Information, Systematics, Schrödinger’s Cat, Living-Systems
Gihan Soliman, The Linnean Society of Mineral Cybernetics, Leadhills, Scotland, ML12 6YA, United Kingdom.
Soliman, G., (2026). From Elephants to Schrödinger’s Cat: “Cybernetic Blindness” Across Systems — How Fragments Disguised as Wholes Distort Algorithms, Policies, and The Fabric of Reality. J. Cogn. Comput. Ext. Realities, 1(2), 01–15.