The Life of Stafford Beer

Cybernetics is broadly defined as the study of control and communications, with a special emphasis on feedback-based systems. Put another way: cybernetics is the study of the flow of data. Predating computer science by decades, cybernetics offers up an interesting view of computing. But of course, there's a lot more to the picture than just computers. This episode we are looking at Project Cybersyn, an attempt to automate Chile's economy via cybernetics. To talk about this specific case we are going to dive deep into the history of cybernetics itself. Selected Sources: https://sci-hub.se/10.1086/286788 - Behavior, Purpose, and Teleology https://sci-hub.se/10.1057/jors.1984.2 - The Viable System Model, by Beer https://web.archive.org/web/20181222110043/http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/cybernetics/Platform/platform.pdf - Beer on Cybersyn https://web.archive.org/web/20200619033457/https://homes.luddy.indiana.edu/edenm/EdenMedinaJLASAugust2006.pdf - Designing Freedom, Regulating a Nation, by Eden Medina