4 ms·

I haven't heard of cybernetics being a Google term before I also see where you're coming from. I think since the concepts of cybernetics have been swallowed up

I haven't heard of cybernetics being a Google term before I also see where you're coming from. I think since the concepts of cybernetics have been swallowed up by the modern world, "modernism" might be slightly more appropriate. Perhaps a new term is needed at this point too Some of those weird manifests you described have been compounding, too. At an extreme, there was the Unabomber, whose manifesto was anti-industrialization. One of his targets, David Gelernter, was a proponent of technology encroaching on our lives (almost to a hyper-cybernetic extreme, particularly in his book Mirror Worlds where he describes a then-future where everything and everyone had a real existence, but also a digital one too. The digital one would make it easier to monitor and control things that would manifest positively in the real world)

dogman144 4y ago
Right. If you’re from a tech background and are looking for books that lead to other books, Cybernetics is a way in. A specific example is that Cybernetic Hypothesis book, which is full on hard-leftest French writer group writing under a pseudonym and covering the social<>anthropology<>economic<>tech aspect of “all this.” That same term will also lead to Norbert W and dry engineering Cybernetics, although his later books skew social impact as well iirc. The domestic terror angle is something I worry about. I’m in no way of condoning it, but the Unabomber is a clear example of ~tech despair leading into violence. So today, when the advocates for paying attention to this are basically Andrew Yang discussing out of work truck drivers and that Jon Stewart/Obama/Bezos dinner thing, it’s concerning to consider. The Unabomber occurred pre-iPhone and still escalated into something awful. So, what if tech/cybernetics/whatever the catchall phrase is the driver to this discontent which then leads to violence. Well, there’s a lot, to put it very mildly, of dehumanizing tech out there now and a population of users getting steered by it for years now. Many of them react via collective labor actions, but what will the others do?

dogman144 4y ago

Right. If you’re from a tech background and are looking for books that lead to other books, Cybernetics is a way in. A specific example is that Cybernetic Hypothesis book, which is full on hard-leftest French writer group writing under a pseudonym and covering the social<>anthropology<>economic<>tech aspect of “all this.” That same term will also lead to Norbert W and dry engineering Cybernetics, although his later books skew social impact as well iirc. The domestic terror angle is something I worry about. I’m in no way of condoning it, but the Unabomber is a clear example of ~tech despair leading into violence. So today, when the advocates for paying attention to this are basically Andrew Yang discussing out of work truck drivers and that Jon Stewart/Obama/Bezos dinner thing, it’s concerning to consider. The Unabomber occurred pre-iPhone and still escalated into something awful. So, what if tech/cybernetics/whatever the catchall phrase is the driver to this discontent which then leads to violence. Well, there’s a lot, to put it very mildly, of dehumanizing tech out there now and a population of users getting steered by it for years now. Many of them react via collective labor actions, but what will the others do?