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follow this thread of the story below, into the fields of architecture and theo-
retical biology as well as Ashby's next project after the homeostat, DAMS. But
I can finish this section with a further reflection.
Warren McCulloch (1988) notably described his cybernetics as “experi-
mental epistemology,” meaning the pursuit of a theory of knowledge via em-
pirical and theoretical analysis of how the brain actually represents and knows
the world. We could likewise think of Ashby's cybernetics as
experimental on-
tology
. I noted earlier that the general performative vision of the world does
not imply any specific cybernetic project; that such projects necessarily
add
something to the vision, both pinning it down and vivifying it by specifying it
in this way or that. The homeostat can certainly be seen as such a specifica-
tion, in the construction of a definite mechanism. But in Ashby's reflections
on time to equilibrium, this specification reacted back upon the general vi-
sion, further specifying that. If one recognizes the homeostat as a good model
for adaptation, then these reflections imply something, not just about the
brain but about the world at large as well: both must consist of sparsely con-
nected dynamic entities.
We are back to the idea that ontology makes a difference, but with a twist.
My argument so far has been that the nonmodern quality of cybernetic proj-
ects can be seen as the counterpart of a nonmodern ontology. Here we have
an example in which one of these projects fed back as a fascinating ontological
conclusion about the coupling of entities in the world. It is hard to see how
one could arrive at a similar conclusion within the framework of the modern
sciences.
27
DAMs
as a symbol of His interest in relations He carried a cHain con-
structed of tHree simpler cHains interlocked in parallel; He enjoyed
watcHing microscopic ecosystems (captured witH fisHpole and bottle
from tHe boneyard creek in urbana) for tHe ricHness of interaction
tHey displayed, and He built a semi-random electronic contraption
witH 100 double triodes and watcHed it for two years before admitting
defeat in tHe face of its incompreHensibly complex beHavior.
RogeR CoNANT,
“w. ross asHby (1903-1972)” (1974, 4)
The 1952 first printing of
Design for a Brain
included just one footnote: on page
171 Ashby revealed that he was building a machine called DAMS. In the 1954
