File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2001/lyotard.0104, message 50


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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