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The Fabulous Loop de Loop
The cybernetic discourse as read through seven feedback machines
A project by Steve Rushton
SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION (NOT YET PUBLIC)
Contents
Introduction: The Foundations of Cybernetic Discourse
THE GOVERNOR
The 1800s – The Governor in a steam engine carries news of change through the system and adapts to that change (feedback). Some people think that the adaptability and flexibility of the governor follows the same principle of adaptability and flexibility that we see in the natural world.
Samuel Butler – The Vapour Engine
Edward Craik – A (Proto) Cybernetic Explanation
Gregory Bateson – From Schizmogenesis to Feedback
M. SPECULARIX (The Cybernetic Tortoise)
The late 1940s– The Cybernetic Tortoise moves about, responding to light and touch. Does its movement demonstrate behaviour? Does its behaviour demonstrate thought?
W. Grey Walter – The Body in Pieces
Jacques Lacan – The Tortoise and Homeostasis
Gregory Bateson – Bateson’s Negentropic Discourse Matrix
SEER (SEquence Extrapolating Robot)
The early 1950s, the SEER (SEquence Extrapolating Robot) plays a simple guessing game with humans. Is SEER one of the first “thinking machines”?
Warren S. McCulloch and Jacques Lacan – Play Like an Idiot
Jacques Lacan – Lacan Builds a Circuit: Cybernetics and the Unconscious
THE STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIAL (The Anthropometre)
1924– The Structural Differential is a “plastic diagram” that helps users understand the difference between an object and the word representing that object.
Alfred Korzybski and Gregory Bateson – Why “The Map is NOT the Territory”
THE ELECTROPSYCOMETER (The E-Meter)
The early 1950s– The E-Meter (Electropsycometer) is used in Scientology auditing sessions. The E-Meter uses feedback to regulate and monitor the actions and re-actions of the user.
Alfred Korzybski and William Burroughs – Time-Binding and Time-Scrambling
THE HOMEOSTAT
The late 1940s– The Homeostat explores the degree of self-organization afforded within a complex system. If you disturb the homeostat, it will adapt and return to a stable state. Does the "mind" of this machine extend into its environment?
W. Ross Ashby and Gregory Bateson – Steps Towards a (Media) Ecology
THE PORTAPAK: SONY VIDEOROVER DV-2400 (1967)
Radical Software, Guerrilla Television and Gregory Bateson – The Fabulous Loop de Loop
CONCLUSION
THE ANNOTATION
(An ongoing annotated bibliography)
The Annotation runs as a parallel text alongside The Fabulous Loop de Loop.