View source for PURLOINED LETTER: ELEMENTS OF THE DISCOURSE

<p class="pt-link">[[Poe's Purloined Letter]]</p>

Lacan’s understanding of finite state automata allowed him to theorize that simple information machines were structured similarly to simple languages with limited functions; that the syntax of a finite-state automata was descriptive of the symbolic order.

Below I list the key theoretical objects discussed or referred to in seminar II and Lacan’s lecture on cybernetics in order to map out a local “discourse network”  

# the objects
# where the objects occur:



'''1.	the objects'''

Von Neumann & Morgenstern's  ''Game Theory and Economic Behaviour'';

The Tale of the Purloined Letter by Edger Allen Poe;

The game of odds & evens (matching pennies);

Lacan describes a finite state automata that can play the game of odds and evens,

(with the same function as Claude Shannon & David Hagelbarger's SEER) 



'''2. where the objects occur'''

A matrix of common themes interconnect the different elements of the discourse:

Odd & even (matching pennies) appears in Poe's story; 

Poe and odd and even (matching pennies) appear in von Neumann & Morganstern’s Game Theory and Economic Behaviour;

Poe and odd and even (matching pennies) appear in von Neumann & Morganstern’s Game Theory and Economic Behaviour appear in Shannon’s account of SEER

Poe, odd and evens (matching pennies) and von Neumann & Morganstern’s Game Theory and Economic Behaviour; appear in Lacan’s seminar on the Putrloined letter;

Poe, odd and evens (matching pennies), von Neumann & Morganstern Game Theory and Economic Behaviour; and Lacan appear in texts by Guilbaud. 

Guilbaud's What is Cybernetics? [1954] reference:

Poe's story and in a 1953 lecture he draws an equivalence between odds & evens and matching pennies.

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