Re: [OPE] project-cybersyn

Thank you Paul. I miss our breakfasts.

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 08:42:44PM +0000, wpc wrote:
>
> http://www.cybersyn.cl/ingles/context/context.html
>
> I have no reason to doubt Beers account. The writer of your link is
> applying the standards of 2009 to the technology of 40 years ago. He
> says that the computer screens were a fraud because they operated
> with slide projectors behind the scenes -- well in those days the
> technology to create large flat screen
> computer displays did not exist, computer colour graphics displays did
> not exist. He speaks dismissively
> of the use of Western Union telex machines, but 110 baud telex machines
> were the standard i/o device
> for minicomputers in the 70s. That was what I was using when I did my
> computing degree in 75.
>
> What was inovative about Beer was that he attempted with what today
> seems very primitive technolgy to build a cybernetic feedback system
> which responded to anomalies and flagged them up to people in the
> control room.
> The OP ROOM should be considered as a descendent of the air defence op
> rooms developed by the RAF during world war II. These had a
> predominantly manually driven display system. The OP ROOM proposed by
> Beer also would have had to rely on a combination of manual and
> electrical displays.
>
> Beer was using computers that by modern standards were ridiculously low
> powered, but so were all cyberneticians, one should not apply the
> expectations of 2009 to 1970.
> Michael Perelman wrote:
>> Paul, this site implies that Beer was a fraud. I was hoping that you
>> could help me in understanding the validity of the charge, since you
>> know a great deal about the subject.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:11:23AM +0000, wpc wrote:
>>
>>> michael perelman wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have heard very interesting things about project-cybersyn.
>>>>
>>>> Alex Tabarrok claims it was a fraud. Does anyone have any further
>>>> information?
>>>>
>>>> http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/12/project-cybersyn.html
>>>>
>>> Stafford Beer gave an account of it in his book, I think the book was
>>> called 'The Brain of the Firm'.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ope mailing list
>>> ope@lists.csuchico.edu
>>> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
>>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> ope mailing list
> ope@lists.csuchico.edu
> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope

-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope