Cybernetics for the 21st CenturyCybernetics for the 21st CenturyLectures and Symposium

Cybernetics for the 21st Century – Research Network for Philosophy and Technology | 技術與哲學研究網絡

Videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaLE95M4BamLJwvwUQhL9MQ

Host:  Media Lab of Guangdong Times Museum, Research Network for Philosophy and Technology

Co-Organizer: Hanart Forum

The launch of the program is made possible by the support of M Art Foundation

Supported Networks: Research Center for Science and Human Imagination, Southern University of Science and Technology; CUHK (Shen Zhen) University Arts Centre; Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society (AIRS)

Supported Media: thepaper.cn, The Thinker, LEAP

Supported by Guangdong Times Museum

Special thanks to Times China

Time: October 28th – December 16th, 2022

Lectures will be screening on Lecture Series | Medialab

October 28th
Andrew Pickering

Lecture: Cybernetics in Britain

November 4th
Slava Gerovitch

Lecture: Cybernetics Across Cultures: The Localization of the Universal

November 11th
Michal Krzykawski

Lecture: Cybernetics and Communism: Cybernetic Thinking in the Polish People’s Republic

November 18th
David Maulén de los Reyes

Lecture: Why Did Cybernetics Disappear in Latin America? An Incomplete Timeline

November 25th
Brunella Antomarini

Lecture: Leibniz’ Teleology, or A Pre-history of Cybernetics

December 2nd
Mathieu Triclot

Lecture: Cybernetics for the 21^st Century? Or Ontology and Politics of Information in the First Cybernetics

December 9th
Daisuke Harashima

Lecture: Life-in-formation: Cybernetics of Heart (Cybernetics for the 21^st Century)

December 16th
Katherine Hayles

Lecture: Detoxifying Cybernetics:  From Homeostasis to Autopoiesis and Beyond

December (time and topics to be announced)
Symposium: Cybernetics for the 21^st Century

Art, Technology and Philosophy Symposium (II)
Cybernetics for the 21st Century

Cybernetics is not only an ephemeral and contingent event in intellectual history, but rather it presents itself firstly as a new science of machines, which breaks away from the mechanism of the 17th century, that is also the reason for which Norbert Wiener in his 1948 Cybernetics: or the Control or Communication in Machine and Animals could claim that cybernetic machines can live a Bergsonian time, namely a biological, creative and irreversible time, in contradistinction to the Newtonian time, which is mechanical, repetitive and reversible; secondly, as a universal discipline, which is able to unify all other scientific disciplines, and later also disciplines of the social sciences, exemplified by the work of Niklas Luhmann, Heinz von Foerster, Maturana and Varela, later called the Second Order Cybernetics; thirdly as a philosophy, or more precisely the latest development of Western philosophy, that which led to Martin Heidegger’s claim that cybernetics marks the end or completion of Western philosophy and metaphysics.

Today we don’t often hear the term cybernetics in universities, and Heidegger’s assertion that cybernetics marks the end of philosophy may sound reactionary since philosophy departments continue to exist, but cybernetics is no longer in the syllabus of university disciplines. The truth is that cybernetics has already been absorbed in almost all engineering disciplines as well as subjects of art and humanities, notably art, media studies and philosophy of technology, and therefore it has realized what it has promised as a universal method; The significance of cybernetics remains to be questioned and taken far beyond what has been characterized as Californian Ideology and its reminiscence. McLuhan said in an interview in the 1970s that the launch of the Sputnik marks the end of nature and the beginning of ecology. With the later image of the whole earth taken from the satellite in the 1960s, the earth became a veritable artifice, or a spaceship in the sense of Buckminister Fuller. It was also at this turning point that the relation between human, nature, and technology entered a new epoch.

This new epoch is where we are living, and more than ever, we are living in an epoch of cybernetics, however, we still easily fall prey to a dichotomy of nature and culture without really understanding the significance and the limits of cybernetics. We, moderns, are alcoholics, who failed to get out of the positive feedback of progress, like what Nietzsche describes in the Gay Science, the pursuit of the infinite leads to the realization that nothing is more frightening than the infinite. A new recursive epistemology in the sense of Gregory Bateson, which inherits cybernetic thinking while seeking to overcome its intoxication, is needed for the program of re-orientation. This new program can only set off from cybernetics and it can only survive by going beyond cybernetics.

This two years public research program of the Times Museum Media Lab titled “Cybernetics for the 21st Century” aims to firstly reconstruct the history of cybernetics, from the perspectives of different geographical locations, political projects and philosophical reflections; and secondly to ask what might be the contribution of the cybernetic movement to the new form of thinking that is urgently needed to understand and reorient our digital earth. The first edition of the program consists of eight lectures and two symposiums with the presentation of philosophers, historians of science, and sociologists, including Andrew Pickering, Katherine Hayles, Brunella Antomarini, Slava Gerovitch, David Maulén de los Reyes, Michal Krzykawski, Mathieu Triclot, Daisuke Harashima. The program is hosted by Yuk Hui and curated by Jianru Wu.

Host: Media Lab of Guangdong Times Museum, Research Network for Philosophy and Technology
Co-Organizer: Hanart Forum
The launch of the program is made possible by the support of M Art Foundation

https://medialab.timesmuseum.org/en/lectures

Decision Integrity (DIL) is a research and coaching enterprise working on holistic approaches that benefit sustainable systems, projects, communities, organisations and societies with special emphasis on transformative resilience.

System Mapping

Hexagons for systems thinking, Hodgson (1992)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0377221792900196

For systems ‘experts’ – can major projects benefit from the application of systems approaches?

Majorprojects through a system lense | empirio

Please be so kind and take part in this short survey about major projects and systems theory.

It will take just 2 minutes. It is anonymous, no entries like email, etc are necessary. (Please feel free to share )

It’s part of research by Michael Frahm

PLEASE CLICK HERE https://lnkd.in/e8Xj5grz.

Don’t be put off by the German, the survey is in English!

Majorprojects through a system lensevon Michael Frahm

Majorprojects through a system lense | empirio

The Wales Systems Forum has been set up as an independent Welsh body, by
Welsh members of the Schumacher Institute for Sustainable Systems. The
aim is to help extend systems understanding and capacity across all sectors of
Welsh society.
We are in the process of forming a Not-for-Profit company to offer training
and consultancy.
We will be developing a network of interested people from across different
areas of work and discipliones & running regular free online
seminar/discussion events online.
Contact us if you would like to be kept informed:
jennethparker@walessystemsforum.org

Wales Systems Forum | Facebook

pdf

Sys Lab is a research group at Politecnico di Torino, which explores methods and tools of systemic design for environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Systemic Design Lab

from the PHD-DESIGN mailing list

Dear all,

At Politecnico di Torino (Turin, Italy), we are searching for a PhD student working on the research topic “Systemic Design to enhance industrial sustainability transition” (3 years, 100%).

//Topic//
The PhD programme is part of the Innovation Ecosystem NODES (Nord-Ovest Digitale E Sostenibile – which is the Italian for “Digital and Sustainable North-Western Italy”), funded by the Italian Ministry for Universities and Research within the framework of the PNRR (National Resilience and Recovery Fund). The main topic is the sustainable and circular transition of industrial models, focusing on the valorisation of agricultural, industrial and urban by-products from a systemic perspective.

//Team//
The candidate will work on her/his/their research within our Sys – Systemic Design Lab https://www.systemicdesignlab.it/ and in collaboration with other disciplines and research teams involved in the research ecosystem.

//Location//
The candidate will be based in Turin (Italy) in the facilities of the Department of Architecture and Design. It is possible to start the PhD programme remotely in case of long visa application times.

// Profile //
> Hold a master’s degree in design, design engineering or equivalent.
> Have a good knowledge of Systemic Design methodologies and approaches.
> Have skills in complex data analysis and visualization.
> Knowledge of Italian is not compulsory but is considered a preferential requirement.

// Apply //
> Deadline for application is 12 December 2022. The PhD programme is expected to start in January 2023
> For information and application, please write to: amina.pereno@polito.it

Daniel Walsh – Principles for Working with Complexity

Daniel Walsh – Principles for Working with Complexity, Tue, Nov 29, 2022, 12:00 PM | Meetup

As announced earlier, on this Thursday, the 1st of December, from 4-5:30 pm (UK wintertime), we have our next webinar by Dr. Olag Brugman, on “Ten Synergetic Ideas for the VSM and Management Cybernetics Community”. See below details of this webinar.

The webinar would be at our usual zoom link:

Topic: Metaphorum’s Webinar Series
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81943981395

See also below the agenda for the forthcoming webinars in 2023.

To begin our webinar series in 2023, we will have an open conversation with Vanilla Beer, on her personal experience and learning with Stafford. We invite our members to send in advance any questions they may have to include in the conversation, to metaphorum.org@gmail,com, before the end of the year.

Please note there is a new webinar in the agenda, by Mike Jackson on March the 15th – details will be posted in our website Metaphorum-webinar-series.

Looking forward to having you with us in this webinar.

Yours,

Angela Espinosa, Allenna Leonard and Jon Walker

Olaf Brugman
Ten Synergetic Ideas for the VSM and Management Cybernetics Community
Thursday, December the 1st, 2022, 5:00- 6:30 pm (UK wintertime)

The leading question for this webinar is: “What can we do to enhance the applicability of the Viable System Model and Management Cybernetics?” Ten ideas will be presented to explore opportunities to take research, education, and application in practice of the VSM and Management Cybernetics a step further. The ideas are inspired by agile software development, pattern language architecture approaches, and from management practice in cooperative organisations. It will address the VSM as a tool, dissemination of knowledge and know-how, and its practical application. The webinar aims to share notions around the VSM and Management Cybernetics that participants can connect to their academic and professional activities.

Dr. Olaf Brugman has been a systems practitioner ever since he first got to know the Viable System Model in 1985. In the systems sciences community, he currently acts as the Vice President Conference on the board of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. His main professional engagement is with Rabobank, at which he serves as the head of sustainability policy & risk. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Twente University and a doctorate from Radboud University Nijmegen, both in the Netherlands. He currently lives in and works from The Hague.
www.olafbrugman.com

Forthcoming Metaphorum webinars 2023

Olaf Brugman Ten Synergetic Ideas for the VSM and Management Cybernetics Community December the 1st 2022
Vanilla Beer Interview with Vanilla Beer January the 4th 2023
Katharine Farrell Holarchies, heterarchies and hermeneutics: exploring relationships, between Beer and Bateson February the 1st, 2023
Jose-Carlos Mariategui CENTRO and the construction of a mathematical model for Latin America March the 1st 2023
Mike Jackson Alexander Bogdanov, Stafford Beer, and intimations of a post-capitalist future March 15th, 2023
Raul Gonzalez How to enhace business platforms using the Viable System Model (VSM) in order to face the current and future complexity business challenges April the 5th 2023
Joe Truss The Meta architecture of TS for participatory democracy May the 3rd 2023

Dec 13

President’s Series 22: Process and Organization

Prof Peter Kawalek discusses the ideas of Whitehead, Beer and Haraway and how they contribute to contemporary understanding

ByCybernetics Society — President’s Series

President’s Series 22: Process and Organization Tickets, Tue 13 Dec 2022 at 17:00 | Eventbrite

13. Cybernetic Revolutionaries Pt.1 │Eden MedinaAuxiliary Statements

13. Cybernetic Revolutionaries Pt.1 │Eden Medina by Auxiliary Statements

2020.05.13

Cybernetic Revolutionaries: A Discussion

For this installment of our series on Actually Existing Socialism we take a look at an attempt to solve the issues of central planning with a novel experiment unlike any other in history: Project Cybersyn in Salvador Allende’s Chile. In a discussion based on Eden Medina’s book Cybernetic Revolutionaries, Donald, Christian, and Rudy discuss the idea of Stafford Beer and their limitations, the difficulties of the democratic road to socialism, and if Cybersyn is totalitarian but in a good way. Outro music is “Litany for a computer and a child about to be born” by Angel Parra and Stafford Beer.

Project Cybersyn Shows All Tech is Political w/ Eden Medina

Tech Won’t Save Us

✓

LS 50 

· TOP 0.5%

May 20, 2021

https://www.listennotes.com/top-podcasts/eden-medina/

Palladium Podcast 77: Nicolas Villarreal on Socialist Cybernetics

May 14, 2022

Nicolas Villarreal joins Ash Milton to discuss his 05 article on how capitalist giants use socialist cybernetic planning, cybernetic methods of organizing supply chains, and their impact on the worker.

Socialist Chile centrally planned its economy using Project Cybersyn, which used computerized feedback loops to give production managers live updates on changes in demand and other production indicators. This helped solved the “bullwhip” problem, where producers belatedly learned of changes in demand that originate further down the supply chain.

Capitalist supergiants like Amazon and Walmart use similar systems to maintain efficiency. But ultimately the workers are made to work at the tempo of an automated feedback system that leads to injury and exhaustion. Nicolas and Ash also discuss how industrial rationalization and efficiency can lead to worker organization. Nicolas’s article “How Capitalist Giants Use Socialist Cybernetic Planning” is featured in PALLADIUM 05: Centralizing Society.

Nicolas Villarreal works as an analyst for a government contractor and formerly worked in federal banking regulation. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, and author of the novel Caeruleus. He tweets @NicolasDVillar1.

https://palladiummag.podbean.com/e/palladium-podcast-77-nicolas-villarreal-on-socialist-cybernetics/

Theory of the firm

Theory of the firm – Wikipedia

Many MindsMind everywhere

Many Minds: Mind everywhere

Distributed systems provide a particular challenge to program. They often require us to have multiple copies of data, which need to keep synchronized. Yet we cannot rely on processing nodes working reliably, and network delays can easily lead to inconsistencies. Despite this, many organizations rely on a range of core distributed software handling data storage, messaging, system management, and compute capability. These systems face common problems which they solve with similar solutions. This article recognizes and develops these solutions as patterns, with which we can build up an understanding of how to better understand, communicate and teach distributed system design.

07 September 2022

Patterns of Distributed Systems