Many thanks for that link.

I wonder whether anyone on this list knows the history of the 
techniques used in systems like these? Are they descended in some sad 
way from the Operational Research/cybernetics tradition?

I am particularly interested in the use, by Stafford Beer et al, of 
cybernetic techniques to predict supply problems etc. during Chile's 
attempt to create a socialist economy, forty years ago. This was 
extraordinarily parsimonious - yet showed signs of working rather 
well. (Good book about this last year, by Eden Medina: Cybernetic 
Revolutionaries).

These current systems on the other hand are anything but parsimonious 
(at least, if the "cloud's" CO2 emissions are any indication - 
greater than Germany's or even India's, and rising rapidly).

I've always assumed that a lot of the cybernetic thinking and 
techniques that, in the 1940s-70s were focused on maximising human 
wellbeing became diverted into things like SAP (the 'enterprise 
resource planning' software systems for maximising the wellbeing of 
large corporations, supermarkets etc.), and in big surveillance 
systems (which must by now be an absolutely colossal sector, thanks 
to the 'wars' on abstract nouns, such as immigration and terror).

i.e., a redirection of technological progress and investment into 
monitoring and predicting the behaviour of millions of individuals, 
instead of monitoring the economy for the benefit of all those 
individuals.

If anyone has any knowledge of how (or whether) cybernetics did 
indeed morph into all of this, I'd love to know about it.

Best regards,

Bob Hughes

>Hi all,
>
>I was sent this and thought it might just be of interest to those 
>who are engaged in this kind of research. If you are not, forgive 
>this intrusion.
>
>larry
>
>Dr L Brownstein
>[Alt-e] <>[log in to unmask]
>
>Review Editor
>Radical Statistics
>
>
>------ Forwarded Message ------
>From: "Jonathan Gallagher" 
><<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]>
>To: "L Brownstein" <<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: 07/02/2013 15:21:02
>Subject: The Future of Modern Computing: Analyzing Data in Motion
>
>
>
>Hi L,
>
><http://marketing.streambase.com/acton/ct/1262/s-01b6-1302/Bct/g-2504/l-24f8:4594/ct4_0/1>Click 
>here to request a demonstation of StreamBase CEP, a technology for 
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>
>CEP technology is radically different than the technology required 
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>
>Request a demonstration to find out why.
>
>
>Best regards,
>
>Jonathan
>
>Jonathan Gallagher | Director of Marketing | StreamBase Systems, 
>Inc., 181 Spring Street, Lexington, MA 02421
>
>(p) +1 781-761-0866 |(f) +1 781-761-0801
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>
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>
>
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>click <http://www.actonsoftware.com/acton/rif/1262/s-01b6-1302/-/l-24f8:4594/g-2504/zout>here.
>
>
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