Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 20:36:23 -0500 From: Mary Murphy&Salstrand <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net> Subject: Re: The differance that makes a difference hugh: comments upon your comments > **Norbert Weiner wrote his "Cybernetics" book soon after WWII. I don't >think either he or von Neuman applied it to organisms.** > > Yes, you are absolutely right here. I conflated von Neumann with Weiner here. Weiner gets credit for developing cybernetics. However, von Neumann also developed the idea of self-reproducing machines and is still connected to the topic discussed here. My copy of "The Human Use of Human Beings" disappeared eons ago, but I still remember the definition of cybernetics as being concerned with control and communication in animal and machine. The whole point of cybernetics lies in the symmetry between the two. It isn't concerned with computers alone. Who will control the data banks is perhaps the central metaphysical question par excellence that Lyotard raises. > **If memory serves, this is in "The Postmodern Condition"** Yes, you are correct. Sorry if I made it appear that I thought this was in "The Differend". My point is that this is an important questions and Lyotard approaches in various texts in various ways, even in "The Inhuman" which Steve has been discussing lately. **I would say it's more a matter of 1)who owns a country's natural resources, real estate, and means of production, and 2) how effectively owners of a country control the legislature, courts, and government agencies who determine the terms of employment and the taxes workers must pay for the privilege of using others' property to earn a living.** Reading this, it struck me - have you been arguing along the line of Henry George for a single tax on property? Is this the political angle you are working from? Or am I just conflating again? The counterstrategy on the part of labor is not simply to resist, but to develop new organizations of information that elude such control by continuosly proliferating multiple centers that elide and envelop the existing forms of control. **For instance?** Here is just one elementary example. Many employees now have access to the internet, but bosses are concerned that they may be accessing sites not related to business. But where does one draw the line. Does another company which allows employees such freedom enjoy a competitive edge because employees become better informed and better motivated? How does a manager respond? Also, companies invest in programs that block pornography. However, suppose a company is sponsering a race against breast cancer and one of the employees cannot access a site for information to put into a pamplet because the software blocks any mention of the word "breast". Again, how does a manager respond? **Too much in one mouthful.** **Much too much** Do you disagree or merely think the content needs to be expanded?
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