Cybernetics and the Counterculture

CHID 370/COM 302Winter 2007

Lecture 2

Apollo 8, Earth Rise, 1968

Cybernetics-The Ontology of the Enemy

• Norbert Wiener• During WWII

worked on the automatic aiming and firing of Anti-Aircraft guns

• Cybernetics- “steersman”

• Control through feedback

1894-1964

Cybernetics in Society• For Wiener “cybernetics” not just

about computers -- a method for studying any complex system

• Gunner and Gun in all weather conditions

• Marketing a new product- analysis, design, focus group, product release.

Systems thinking 101

Input OutputFunction

Input OutputFunction

Feedback

Implications• Studies relationships not just objects• Dynamic--changes over time• Offers predictive accuracy--control

– Control now through coercion not punishment

• Control at the level of the system– “Who is Number 1?” . . . “That would be

telling”

Stewart Brand• Example of how

counterculture “plugged in”• Communes and “back to

earth movement”• Paul Erlich’s Biology classes

at Stanford learns of Cybernetics

• Realizes the potential for thinking in “wholistic” terms

Ca. 1977

Whole Earth Catalog• A type of

information system

• Also a new form of consumer practice

Mission• “We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So

far, remotely done power and glory - as via government, big business, formal education, church — has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing — power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG.”

Implications• Information dissemination and

retrieval considered a “tool” to remake society

• Need to liberate computers from military applications

• Move toward consumer applications

WELL Wired• Whole Earth ‘lectronic link

– One of the oldest “virtual communities” in existence (still going!)

– Dial-up BBS started in 1985• WIRED magazine

– Founding Editor Kevin Kelly• Used to edit Whole Earth Catalog