Thomas Sowell is right: “There are no solutions, only trade offs.” Government of the people, *all* people, works better when this simple fact is acknowledged.
If you haven't read Dan Davies' The Unaccountability Machine yet, you absolutely should - this extract gives you a sense of immediate relevance (but riffing on Beer rather Ashby; requisite variety gets its shout-out elsewhere in the book ) https://backofmind.substack.com/p/the-only-message-the-channel-can )
Oh, cool, I will absolutely do that. I met Beer once, and I have several of his books in my shelf (hard copies are very difficult to find these days). I intend to do a deep dive into his ideas, likely this winter.
Dan's book is a quite brilliant update/generalization/remaking of Beer's arguments - very funny and getting a lot of play (although the US/Canada edition is not coming out till April). I've a longer piece that gives a sense of (half) the argument here - https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/cybernetics-is-the-science-of-the -
I discovered Eno on a John Cale album in 1974 or so, and he became my psychological organizing principle, somehow or other. I would argue he was both a click track (animation term) for a rhythmic indicator for visuals, and/or a pilot wave for many people for the last 50 years. Somehow, maybe, he did pursue something along the lines of what you speak of.
I always liked Wire Shock on Nerve Net slightly more, still Fripp, still Eno, 15 years later. I witnessed the Frippotronics tour, at Ottawa Arts Centre, 1979 ? Eno built Fripp a device that consisted (I think) of 2 or 3 Studer tape recorders with a huge tape loop running between them and a series of Foot pedals from a Hammond organ that controlled the heads on the Studers, record, erase, play and the intermingling of the tracks and Fripp's guitar. The sound was from the ethers or something, the sound continues to show up in Fripp and Eno's work and one very peculiar album called "Let the Power Fall".
Thomas Sowell is right: “There are no solutions, only trade offs.” Government of the people, *all* people, works better when this simple fact is acknowledged.
If you haven't read Dan Davies' The Unaccountability Machine yet, you absolutely should - this extract gives you a sense of immediate relevance (but riffing on Beer rather Ashby; requisite variety gets its shout-out elsewhere in the book ) https://backofmind.substack.com/p/the-only-message-the-channel-can )
Oh, cool, I will absolutely do that. I met Beer once, and I have several of his books in my shelf (hard copies are very difficult to find these days). I intend to do a deep dive into his ideas, likely this winter.
Dan's book is a quite brilliant update/generalization/remaking of Beer's arguments - very funny and getting a lot of play (although the US/Canada edition is not coming out till April). I've a longer piece that gives a sense of (half) the argument here - https://www.programmablemutter.com/p/cybernetics-is-the-science-of-the -
I discovered Eno on a John Cale album in 1974 or so, and he became my psychological organizing principle, somehow or other. I would argue he was both a click track (animation term) for a rhythmic indicator for visuals, and/or a pilot wave for many people for the last 50 years. Somehow, maybe, he did pursue something along the lines of what you speak of.
This essay is wonderful and generative and gives some sense of how Beer has influenced his thinking - https://monoskop.org/images/8/8c/Eno_Brian_1976_2015_Generating_and_Organizing_Variety_in_the_Arts.pdf
I was introduced to Eno through his work with Robert Fripp. Still think "Baby's on Fire" has the best guitar solo ever.
But I was unaware of the Beer connection.
I always liked Wire Shock on Nerve Net slightly more, still Fripp, still Eno, 15 years later. I witnessed the Frippotronics tour, at Ottawa Arts Centre, 1979 ? Eno built Fripp a device that consisted (I think) of 2 or 3 Studer tape recorders with a huge tape loop running between them and a series of Foot pedals from a Hammond organ that controlled the heads on the Studers, record, erase, play and the intermingling of the tracks and Fripp's guitar. The sound was from the ethers or something, the sound continues to show up in Fripp and Eno's work and one very peculiar album called "Let the Power Fall".