Fenton Robb writes:
Gordon and Elizabeth kindly gave me a copy of Cybernetics Art
and Ideas (ed. Jasia Reichart, Studio Vista, London, 1971).
In this is a piece by Gordon that influenced me greatly:
'A comment on the cybernetic psychology of pleasure
Man is prone to seek novelty in his environment and, having
found a novel situation, to learn how to control it. .... These
propensities are at the root of curiosity and the assimilation
of knowledge. ...they lead (man) into social communication, conversation,
and other modes of partially co-operative interaction'.
'My contention is that man enjoys performing these jointly
innovative and cohesive activities. Together, they represent an
essentially human and inherently pleasurable mode of activity'.
This dogmatic statement of the human condition does not apply
in all circumstances. On occasion, they merely respond to stimuli
o act as passive receptors. But the characterisation is accurate
whenever man is involved in aesthetic activities'.
If I look at a picture, I am biased to be a viewer, though
in a sense I can and do repaint my internal representation. If
I play with a reactive and adaptive environment, I can alternate
the roles of painter and viewer at will. Whether there is virtue
in this I do not know. But there might be'.
After describing the 'Colloquy of Mobiles' that he demonstrated
at the Cybernetic Serendipity event at the ICA in 1968,
Gordon finally speculates:
The really interesting issue is what happens if some human
beings are provided with the wherewithall to produce signs in
the mobile language and are introduced into the environment. It
is quite likely that they will communicate with the mobiles, for
the mobiles are interacting already and ostensively define the
gambits involved in the process. Further their community has quite
an intriguing organisation. At this level alone, the environment
has the properties required of an aesthetically potent environment.
But the mobiles produce a complex auditory and visual effect
by dint of their interaction. They cannot, of course, interpret
these light and sound patterns. But Human beings can and it seems
reasonable to suppose that they will also aim to achieve patterns
that they deem pleasing by interacting with the system at a higher
level of discourse.
I do not know. But I believe it may work out that way.'
I have had the feelings for many years that Gordon's mobiles could
have been metaphors for the autonomous supra-human institutions
that I, when in my paranoid state, believe to live in their own
private worlds shaping our language, our sensibilities and the
potentials we have for cognition. Were we to be provided with
the wherewithall to produce signs in their language, we might
be able to converse with them - but, so far as I know, we have
not yet achieved that competence. Indeed their language may be
at such a meta-level as to be forever inaccessible to us.
Finally the last lines of "free will" -
Fenton F. Robb
PhD (Cybernetics) Brunel 1979
Pupil of Dr Gordon Pask
Sometime Deputy Chairman of Scottish Gas;
Lately-retired Professor of Managerial Information Systems and Control,
The Department of Accounting & Business Method, The University of Edinburgh.