Christian
@christian.bsky.social
Design research & research design. Information architect at heart. Hopeful.
📍 Seattle mostly, sometimes Maine.
🌐 caj.io · @strategytheory.com
📍 Seattle mostly, sometimes Maine.
🌐 caj.io · @strategytheory.com
right. i get a sense of epistemological calm thinking of AI as shorthand for the field of AI research bc it frames how silly it would be to say the market capitalization of HCI, UX, computer vision, or software engineering stocks is $23.5 trillion
November 26, 2025 at 7:26 PM
right. i get a sense of epistemological calm thinking of AI as shorthand for the field of AI research bc it frames how silly it would be to say the market capitalization of HCI, UX, computer vision, or software engineering stocks is $23.5 trillion
Whenever someone (myself included lol) throws around "AI" or "AGI" to refer to a software system or hypothetical software system, I think of Blake's on general good versus minute particulars.
bsky.app/profile/chri...
bsky.app/profile/chri...
“He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars: general Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer, for Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.”
—William Blake, 1801
—William Blake, 1801
November 26, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Whenever someone (myself included lol) throws around "AI" or "AGI" to refer to a software system or hypothetical software system, I think of Blake's on general good versus minute particulars.
bsky.app/profile/chri...
bsky.app/profile/chri...
Would love to see Merriam Webster and AP Stylebook clarify that artificial intelligence is a field of research, not a capability of computer systems. And using the term AI to describe a capability or computer system is a category error.
bsky.app/profile/chri...
bsky.app/profile/chri...
Artificial Intelligence [noun - when used to describe a user agent]:
A misapplied (anthropomorphic) term originally reserved for a field of research, improperly used to refer to computer systems that prioritize subjective properties over contextual relationships.
A misapplied (anthropomorphic) term originally reserved for a field of research, improperly used to refer to computer systems that prioritize subjective properties over contextual relationships.
November 26, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Would love to see Merriam Webster and AP Stylebook clarify that artificial intelligence is a field of research, not a capability of computer systems. And using the term AI to describe a capability or computer system is a category error.
bsky.app/profile/chri...
bsky.app/profile/chri...
Gurducken Augmented Generation
November 25, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Gurducken Augmented Generation
Every time i think about McKinsey which is too much
November 25, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Every time i think about McKinsey which is too much
Familiar with Flores' work, Beer's Cybersyn, Maturana, etc., yes, but not Language Action Perspective. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!!
November 23, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Familiar with Flores' work, Beer's Cybersyn, Maturana, etc., yes, but not Language Action Perspective. I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip!!
There's a lot of great reading out there about it. The most recent and accessible book I'm aware of is probably The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind (I've heard it's a good history, haven't read it)
November 23, 2025 at 1:22 AM
There's a lot of great reading out there about it. The most recent and accessible book I'm aware of is probably The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind (I've heard it's a good history, haven't read it)
It gave scientists all sorts of cool discoveries about positive and negative feedback, navigating complex systems, family therapy, and building things like automated weapons systems (thus the circa WW2 era technological explosion)
November 23, 2025 at 1:20 AM
It gave scientists all sorts of cool discoveries about positive and negative feedback, navigating complex systems, family therapy, and building things like automated weapons systems (thus the circa WW2 era technological explosion)
Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary field (founded in the 1940s) concerned with communication, governance, and the role of observers in recursive systems. The root, "cyber", comes from κυβερνήτης (kybernḗtēs), Greek for steering or captaining a ship (under conditions of uncertainty)
November 23, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Cybernetics is a transdisciplinary field (founded in the 1940s) concerned with communication, governance, and the role of observers in recursive systems. The root, "cyber", comes from κυβερνήτης (kybernḗtēs), Greek for steering or captaining a ship (under conditions of uncertainty)
So uh yeah if you want to talk about cybernetic decision-making, I'm writing something about it @strategytheory.com. Hmu if you'd like to talk strategy, organization design, systemic trauma, or idk cybernetics!
November 23, 2025 at 1:14 AM
So uh yeah if you want to talk about cybernetic decision-making, I'm writing something about it @strategytheory.com. Hmu if you'd like to talk strategy, organization design, systemic trauma, or idk cybernetics!
I don't know how we design good policy to meet the moment without concepts like requisite variety, circular causality, and the role of the observer (turns out Who Funds the Research is a thing worth paying attention to)
November 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I don't know how we design good policy to meet the moment without concepts like requisite variety, circular causality, and the role of the observer (turns out Who Funds the Research is a thing worth paying attention to)
Buuut there are a number of epistemological ingredients formalized by the field of cybernetics that still don't get enough attention in policy and organization design. So as much as i too get the heebie-jeebies, i've given up for now on *not* saying the word cybernetics.
November 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Buuut there are a number of epistemological ingredients formalized by the field of cybernetics that still don't get enough attention in policy and organization design. So as much as i too get the heebie-jeebies, i've given up for now on *not* saying the word cybernetics.
We take cybernetic concepts like feedback and recursion for granted these days. And the transdisciplinary foundations of cybernetics gave us a Cambrian explosion of all sorts of stuff we use every day. Good, bad, and more or less evil.
November 23, 2025 at 1:11 AM
We take cybernetic concepts like feedback and recursion for granted these days. And the transdisciplinary foundations of cybernetics gave us a Cambrian explosion of all sorts of stuff we use every day. Good, bad, and more or less evil.
Much of the cybernetics toolkit was absorbed into adjacent and descendent fields. Social systems theory, cognitive science, complexity science, organizational psychology, management science, artificial intelligence research, ecology, etc. etc.
November 23, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Much of the cybernetics toolkit was absorbed into adjacent and descendent fields. Social systems theory, cognitive science, complexity science, organizational psychology, management science, artificial intelligence research, ecology, etc. etc.
Cybernetics has a marketing problem.
November 23, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Cybernetics has a marketing problem.
5. The name feels bad and at first glance u'd never guess cybernetics is a science of communication, governance, and responsibility in nature and technology. Or that cybernetics has roots in indigenous traditions like open sea navigation.
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
5. The name feels bad and at first glance u'd never guess cybernetics is a science of communication, governance, and responsibility in nature and technology. Or that cybernetics has roots in indigenous traditions like open sea navigation.
4. Cybernetics is synonymous with autonomous weapons systems in more than a few circles.
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
4. Cybernetics is synonymous with autonomous weapons systems in more than a few circles.
3. People use hashtag cybernetics to post furry porn (please stop).
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
3. People use hashtag cybernetics to post furry porn (please stop).
2. Cybernetics sounds like it's concerned with technology and definitely not music or relationships or family therapy or organizational dynamics or anything important to me, the observer.
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
2. Cybernetics sounds like it's concerned with technology and definitely not music or relationships or family therapy or organizational dynamics or anything important to me, the observer.
1. Cybernetics sounds like robots or cyborgs or whatever.
November 23, 2025 at 12:03 AM
1. Cybernetics sounds like robots or cyborgs or whatever.
"One embraces responsibility together with one's scientific activity, and therefore in cybernetics you have a scientific foundation for ethics which is not now being introduced from outside. Ethics becomes an essential part of scientific activity."
— Heinz von Foerster
bsky.app/profile/chri...
— Heinz von Foerster
bsky.app/profile/chri...
Oldie but goodie. Heinz von Foerster and Humberto Maturana on understanding complexity with cybernetics (Part 1).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbl...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbl...
Understanding Complexity Cybernetic Approach Part 1 with Heinz von Foerster
YouTube video by Juan David Campolargo
www.youtube.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:23 PM
"One embraces responsibility together with one's scientific activity, and therefore in cybernetics you have a scientific foundation for ethics which is not now being introduced from outside. Ethics becomes an essential part of scientific activity."
— Heinz von Foerster
bsky.app/profile/chri...
— Heinz von Foerster
bsky.app/profile/chri...
Thanks! Searxng looks like it could indeed support a workflow like this 👀
November 22, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Thanks! Searxng looks like it could indeed support a workflow like this 👀