Cybernetics – Across the Grid

Cybernetics is a term that, broadly defined, encompasses nearly all human-system interaction. More narrowly, and with help of Hollywood, images of intelligent robots and computer-enhanced humans come to mind. But in the real world, and especially when it comes to dealing with issues of pervasive scale and self-reinforcing centers of power such as social networks, the study of human-computer interaction becomes more than one regarding simple inputs and outputs, but rather understanding and dealing with entirely new and almost indomitable systems that by the nature of their size pose a real threat to the average citizen whether that person actively engages with them or not. And in many cases, the citizen by virtue of the convenience and utility of the systems has no choice.

Myth of the 20th Century – Episode 158 –  Cybernetics – Across the Grid

— References —

– Leviathan, Hobbes (1651)
– Liar, Asimov (1941)
– Runaround, Asimov (1942)
– Cybernetics, Weiner (1948)
– I Robot, Asimov (1950)
– The Technological Society, Ellul (1954)
– Industrial Dynamics, Forrester (1961)
– 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick (1968)
– Urban Dynamics, Forrester (1969)
– Between Two Ages – America’s Role in the Technotronic Era, Brzezinski (1970)
– World Dynamics, Forrester (1971)
– Limits to Growth, Club of Rome (1971)
– OR in World War 2 – Operational Research against the U boat, Waddington (1973)
– Dark Star, Carpenter (1974)
– Fog of War, Morris (2003)
– Red Plenty, Spufford (2010)
– Soviet Cybernetics, Wild (2016)
– Anti Tech Revolution, Kaczynski (2016)
– Tech billionaires clash over the future of AI: Google founder Larry Page slams Elon Musk’s ‘speciesist’ concerns that killer robots will wipe out humanity, claiming the idea could ‘delay the digital utopia’, Pinkstone (2018) – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5686265/Elon-Musks-concerns-killers-robots-speciesist-according-Google-founder-Larry-Page.html
– Joe Rogan Experience #911 – Alex Jones (2018) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZPCp8SPfOM
– The Management Myth – Taylorism and the Origins of Scientific Management, Myth of the 20th Century (2019) – https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/the-management-myth-taylorism-and-the-origins-of-scientific-management/
– Joe Rogan Experience #1342 – John Carmack (2019) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlMSe5-zP8
– Theory of the firm – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm