The cybernetic brain
by Andrew Pickering · first published 2009
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Cybernetics is often thought of as a grim military or industrial science of control. But as Andrew Pickering reveals in this beguiling book, a much more lively and experimental strain of cybernetics can be traced from the 1940s to the present. The Cybernetic Brain explores a largely forgotten group of British thinkers, including Grey Walter, Ross Ashby, Gregory Bateson, R. D. Laing, Stafford Beer, and Gordon Pask, and their singular work in a dazzling array of fields. Psychiatry, engineering, management, politics, music, architecture, education, tantric yoga, the Beats, and the sixties counter
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For those who asked, yes it was Pask. Cheers biot. I first heard about it in the book "The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future" by Andrew Pickering, which contains other eye-opening gems.
on “Music that upsets expectations is what makes your gray matter sing” ↗…By the end of the book, it becomes clear that the previous books in the series are some kind of John Carter style sword & planet SF, & that this entry is a departure in genre. * Andrew Pickering’s The Cybernetic Brain is full of interesting technical & biographical detail I wasn’t aware of from a lifetime of being casually interested in cybernetics, & makes some interesting meta-philosophical points about cybernetics…
on “Ask HN: What books are you reading this month?” ↗