Re: <nettime> rage against the machine

["Balazs Bodo" <bodo@uva.nl>]

Indeed,

And it is super interesting the see how it is impossible to understand the
complex economic, political, ideological processes that led to the breakdown
of the narrowly defined cybernetic system without first opening the black
box, which, on its face,  does nothing but records the data during the
flight. In that sense the traces of a breakdown of a narrow technical
control process open up the window to the breakdown of the social, economic,
political, cultural factors that shaped the development and conditions of
those technical processes, up to that point invisibly, or at least
indecipherably. 
Or, as is the case with this discussion, we don't even need the actual data,
the simple presence of that black box is enough for us to do some of the
forensic work. :)

Cheers,
b.-


> -----Original Message-----
> From: nettime-l-bounces@mail.kein.org [mailto:nettime-l-
> bounces@mail.kein.org] On Behalf Of William Waites
> Sent: Friday, March 29, 2019 11:32 AM
> To: Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com>
> Cc: nettime-l@mail.kein.org
> Subject: Re: <nettime> rage against the machine
> 
> > To my limited understanding, the black box in the airplane is not a
> > device to limit the complexity of the pilots' interaction with, or
> > understanding of, the plane by reducing a complex process to a simple
> > in/out relationship.
> >
> > No, it's a flight recorder. During the flight, it has no output at
> > all, and in no way influences the processes of flying. It simply
> > records certain signals, including voice signals.
> >
> > The plane would fly in exactly the same way if it wasn't there.
> >
> > In this sense, it's a forensic, not a cybernetic tool. And as that,
> > it's function is actually exactly the opposite. It's a tool designed
> > not to hide but to reveal complexity, to make transparent what happens
> > inside the cockpit.
> 
> It seems to me it is a question of where you draw the system boundary. If
> the system is an aeroplane that is flying, then the recording device is
not part
> of the control loop and it is not a cybernetic tool in that context. If
the system
> is the one that adjusts and optimises designs according to successes and
> failures, then the recording device definitely is part of the control loop
and it
> is a cybernetic tool.
> 
> Best wishes,
> -w

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