(Mao interview with André Malrux (1965))
If, therefore, we really want to know what are the significant points in history, we have to ask which are the moments in history when attitudes were changed.These are the moments when people are hurt because of their former "values".
(...)
Similarly, the important question about history is: Has the bias or setting been changed? The episodic working out of events under a single stationary setting is really trivial. It is with this thought in mind that I have said that the two most important historic events in my life were the Treaty of Versailles and the discovery of cybernetics.
(...)
From the point of view of the people who started the mess, it’s not so crazy; they know what happened and how they got there. But the people down the line, who were not there at the beginning, find themselves living in a crazy universe, and find themselves crazy, precisely because they do not know how they got that way.
(...)
You will notice that everything I said about history and about Versailles is a discussion of organized systems and their properties. Now I want to say that we are developing a certain amount of rigorous scientific understanding of these very mysterious organized systems.
(...)
The stance that I have taken in choosing what is important in history—saying that the important things are the moments at which attitude is determined, the moments at which the bias of the thermostat is changed—this stance is derived directly from cybernetics. These are thoughts shaped by events from 1946 and after.
(...)
But pigs do not go around ready-roasted. We now have a lot of cybernetics, a lot of games theory, and the beginnings of understanding of complex systems. But any understanding can be used in destructive ways.
This lecture was given April 21, 1966, to the “Two Worlds Symposium” at Sacramento State College.
Gregory Bateson ("From Versailles to Cybernetics")
No comments:
Post a Comment