The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future

537 Pages·2010·4.22 MB·English

by  Andrew Pickering

THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN

THE
CYBERNETIC
BRAIN
SKETCHES OF ANOTHER FUTURE
Andrew Pickering
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO AND LONDON
ANDREW PICKERING IS PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE CONSTRUCTING QUARKS: A SO-
CIOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PARTICLE PHYSICS, THE MANGLE OF PRACTICE:
TIME, AGENCY, AND SCIENCE, AND SCIENCE AS PRACTICE AND CULTURE, ALL
PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, AND THE MANGLE IN PRAC-
TICE: SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND BECOMING (COEDITED WITH KEITH GUZIK).

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON
© 2010 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED 2010
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH)
ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pickering, Andrew.
The cybernetic brain : sketches of another future /
Andrew Pickering.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cybernetics.
2. Cybernetics—History. 3. Brain. 4. Self-organizing systems.
I. Title.
Q310.P53 2010
003’.5—dc22
2009023367
a THE PAPER USED IN THIS PUBLICATION MEETS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD FOR INFORMATION SCIENCES—PERMA-
NENCE OF PAPER FOR PRINTED LIBRARY MATERIALS, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
DEDICATION
For Jane F.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments / ix
1. The Adaptive Brain / 1 2. Ontological Theater / 17
PART 1: PSYCHIATRY TO CYBERNETICS
3. Grey Walter: From Electroshock to the Psychedelic Sixties / 37
THE TORTOISE AND THE BRAIN / 41 :: TORTOISE ONTOLOGY / 48 :: TORTOISES
AS NOT-BRAINS / 52 :: THE SOCIAL BASIS OF CYBERNETICS / 54 :: RODNEY
BROOKS AND ROBOTICS / 60 :: CORA AND MACHINA DOCILIS / 64 :: CYBER-
NETICS AND MADNESS / 67 :: STRANGE PERFORMANCES / 73 :: FLICKER / 76
:: FLICKER AND THE SIXTIES / 78 :: BIOFEEDBACK AND NEW MUSIC / 83
4. Ross Ashby: Psychiatry, Synthetic Brains, and Cybernetics / 91
THE PATHOLOGICAL BRAIN / 94 :: ASHBY’S HOBBY / 97 :: THE HOMEOSTAT
/ 101 :: THE HOMEOSTAT AS ONTOLOGICAL THEATER / 105 :: THE SOCIAL
BASIS OF ASHBY’S CYBERNETICS / 112 :: DESIGN FOR A BRAIN / 115 ::
DAMS / 122 :: MADNESS REVISITED / 131 :: ADAPTATION, WAR, AND SOCIETY
/ 139 :: CYBERNETICS AS A THEORY OF EVERYTHING / 145 :: CYBERNETICS
AND EPISTEMOLOGY / 149 :: A NEW KIND OF SCIENCE: ALEXANDER, KAUFFMAN,
AND WOLFRAM / 156
5. Gregory Bateson and R. D. Laing: Symmetry, Psychiatry, and the Sixties / 171
GREGORY BATESON / 173 :: SCHIZOPHRENIA AND ENLIGHTENMENT / 175 ::
THERAPY / 179 :: AS NOMAD / 180
R. D. LAING / 183 :: ON THERAPY / 186 :: KINGSLEY HALL / 191 :: ARCHWAY /
195 :: COUPLED BECOMINGS, INNER VOYAGES, AFTERMATH / 198 :: PSYCHIATRY
AND THE SIXTIES / 204 :: ONTOLOGY, POWER, AND REVEALING / 210
PART 2: BEYOND THE BRAIN
6. Stafford Beer: From the Cybernetic Factory to Tantric Yoga / 215
FROM OPERATIONS RESEARCH TO CYBERNETICS / 220 :: TOWARD THE CYBERNETIC
FACTORY / 223 :: BIOLOGICAL COMPUTING / 231 :: ONTOLOGY AND DESIGN /
234 :: THE SOCIAL BASIS OF BEER’S CYBERNETICS / 237 :: THE AFTERLIFE
OF BIOLOGICAL COMPUTING / 240 :: THE VIABLE SYSTEM MODEL / 243 :: THE
VSM AS ONTOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY / 250 :: THE VSM IN PRACTICE / 253
:: CHILE: PROJECT CYBERSYN / 256 :: THE POLITICS OF THE VSM / 261 ::
THE POLITICAL CRITIQUE OF CYBERNETICS / 264 :: ON GOALS / 269 :: THE
POLITICS OF INTERACTING SYSTEMS / 274 :: TEAM SYNTEGRITY / 278 :: CY-
BERNETICS AND SPIRITUALITY / 283 :: HYLOZOISM / 285 :: TANTRISM / 290
:: BRIAN ENO AND NEW MUSIC / 302
7. Gordon Pask: From Chemical Computers to Adaptive Archictecture / 309
MUSICOLOUR / 313 :: THE HISTORY OF MUSICOLOUR / 317 :: MUSICOLOUR AND
ONTOLOGY / 319 :: ONTOLOGY AND AESTHETICS / 321 :: THE SOCIAL BASIS
OF PASK’S CYBERNETICS / 324 :: TRAINING MACHINES / 325 :: TEACHING
MACHINES / 329 :: CHEMICAL COMPUTERS / 334 :: THREADS / 336 :: NEW
SENSES / 341 :: THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF CYBERNETIC RESEARCH / 343 :: CAS,
SOCIAL SCIENCE, AND F-22S / 346 :: THE ARTS AND THE SIXTIES / 347 ::
CYBERNETIC THEATER / 348 :: CYBERNETIC SERENDIPITY / 353 :: THE SOCIAL
BASIS AGAIN / 361 :: THE FUN PALACE / 364 :: AFTER THE SIXTIES: ADAP-
TIVE ARCHITECTURE / 371
8: Sketches of Another Future / 379
THEMES FROM THE HISTORY OF CYBERNETICS / 380 :: ONTOLOGY / 380 :: DE-
SIGN / 382 :: POWER / 382 :: THE ARTS / 384 :: SELVES / 384 :: SPIRITU-
ALITY / 385 :: THE SIXTIES / 387 :: ALTERED STATES / 387 :: THE SOCIAL
BASIS / 388
SKETCHES OF ANOTHER FUTURE / 390
Notes / 403 References / 479 Index / 503
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This project began in fall 1998, with the support of fellowships from the John
Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the Dibner Institute for the History
of Science and Technology at MIT. A lengthy first draft was written during
a sabbatical at the Science Studies Unit of the University of Edinburgh in
2002–3, supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
In 2005–6 I enjoyed a fellowship from the Illinois Program for Research in
the Humanities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the
final draft of the book was completed while I was a fellow at the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 2006–7. Along the
way, visits of a month or two to the Max Planck Institute for the History of
Science in Berlin made possible bursts of sustained research and writing.
I am immensely grateful to all of these institutions, and to David Bloor as
director of the Science Studies Unit and Ursula Klein and Hans-Jörg Rhein-
berger, whose research groups I joined in Berlin.
The book could not have been written without the active assistance of
many cyberneticians, colleagues, friends and family members of the book’s
principal characters, and various others whose work I have referred to and
discussed: Jill Ashby, John Ashby, Mick Ashby, Sally Bannister, Ian Beer,
Stafford Beer, Vanilla Beer, Rodney Brooks, Peter Cariani, Raul Espejo, John
Frazer, Ranulph Glanville, Nick Green, Amanda Heitler, Garnet Hertz, Stew-
art Kauffman, Allenna Leonard, Paul Pangaro, the late Elizabeth Pask, Simon
Penny, Ruth Pettit, Jasia Reichardt, Bernard Scott, Yolanda Sonnabend, Joe