123 - Intro to Cybernetics

The Nonsense Bazaar

What do you think of when you hear the term "cybernetics"? Well there's a solid chance you're wrong. This week we're taking a high level overview of an intellectual Swiss Army Knife that rewired the way we think about everything from economics to ecology, psychology to semiotics. In this episode, we'll unravel the genius of Norbert Wiener, the surprisingly sympathetic mathematician who gave cybernetics its name and set the course for a science of control and communication. We also dissect the Macy Conferences, where mathematicians like John Von Neuman and anthropologists like Margaret Mead attempted to hash out a universal language for understanding systems across disciplines and may or may not have set the stage for things like, ya know, MK-Ultra and associated devils. Cybernetics is cool as hell though.

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