A new language arose after the Second World War. We are thoroughly pickled in this language now, and its origins may be hard to see. Contemporary discussion is awash with the notion of “information”, which often has an uncanny similarity to the manner in which the term “spirit” was used in bygone days. But cybernetics is not a theory of information (or it generates several in compatible approaches to the topic). Its central concerns are with communication and control.
As background to considering the many ways that cybernetics has developed, please read this article about two flavours of information, one associated with Norbert Wiener, and one with Gregory Bateson:
Ramage, M. (2009). Norbert and Gregory: Two strands of cybernetics. Information, Communication & Society, 12(5), 735-749.
With that under your belt, then, half of you will read one of these Metalogues, taken from Bateson’s important book Steps to an Ecology of Mind:
Metalogue 1: Why do things get in a muddle?
Metalogue 2: Why do Frenchmen?
I encourage you to take these light-hearted metalogues seriously. Regardless of which of the metalogues you read, please ask yourself what serious issues it is about. Bring examples that are not in the text to bear on the text itself.
Texts, for Umberto Eco, are lazy machines in search of someone else to do part of the job. Text on the page has no meaning until someone engages with it. The metalogues are there for you to make sense with.
In class you can see what the other half of the class did with their text, and show what you found in the one you chose.
Interdisciplinary Challenges 