Truisms have the disadvantage that by dulling the senses they obscure the truth. Almost nobody will become alarmed when told that in times of continuity the future equals the past. Only a few will become aware that from this follows that in times of socio-cultural change the future will not be like the past... At any moment we are free to act toward the future we desire. In other words, the future will be as we wish and perceive it to be. This may come as a shock only to those who let their thinking be governed by the principle that demands that only the rules observed in the past shall apply to the future. For those the concept of 'change' is inconceivable, for change is the process that obliterates the rules of the past" (Von Foerster, 1972).
Objects Which Imply and Transmit Desires, Assumptions, Systems Every man-made thing implies, by its existence, desires. A desire implies the existence, real or potential, of a system in which it finds perfect fulfillment. Thus every man-made object, as it is a consequence of desire, points to the system in which that object has a perfect place, points to the desires that generated both the object and the system, and points to the assumptions which help to generate or to maintain both the object and the system.
Assumptions, values, attitudes, and behaviors are acquired through interaction with man-made things, whether they be ideas or chairs; those that are transmitted through unexamined interaction with an object are those which support the system in which that object has a perfect place. Understanding man-made objects requires uncovering and examining the desires, assumptions, and systems which they imply and transmit.
The desires, assumptions, and systems that an object implies are not restricted to the ones that originally generated the object. History proves the point. A plain wooden chair is constructed with affection by a colonial farmer who desires to sit in his log cabin. A century and a half later this chair becomes the possession of a man who is proud that he