Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
A year later, we find similar imagery. “A somewhat fearsome idea!” begins
the entry for 7 September 1951 (pp. 3451-52):
In evolution, the fact that survival rules everything means that organisms will
not only develop those features that help them to survive against their envi-
ronment but will also force them to develop those features that help them to
survive against each other. The “killer” Paramecium, or the aggressive male
stag, is favoured as compared with its more neutral neighbours. . . . If the ce-
rebral cortex evolves similarly, by “survival” ruling everything in that world
of behaviour & subsystems, then those subsystems should inevitably become
competitive under the same drive. . . . In a really large cortex I would expect
to find, eventually, whole armies of subsystems struggling, by the use of higher
strategy, against the onslaught of other armies.
Ashby was a great reader, and his next note on the following day begins thus
(pp. 3452-7):
45
I have always held that war, scientific research, and similar activities, being
part of the organism's attempt to deal with its environment, must show, when
efficient & successful, the same principles that are used by the organism in
its simpler & more direct interactions with an environment. I have hunted
through the Public Library for some topic on the essentials of military method,
but could find nothing sufficiently abstract to be usable. So I borrowed “Clause-
witz.” Here is my attempt to translate his principles into the psychological.
He starts 'What is war? War is an art of violence, and its object is to compel
our opponent to comply with our will.' Comment: Clearly he means that step-
functions must change, and those are not to be ours.
War among the homeostats! It is worth continuing this passage. Ashby
remarks that the approximate symmetry between opponents in war (he is
thinking of old-fashioned wars like World War II) “is quite different from the
gross asymmetry usually seen in the organism-environment relation,” and
continues:
Where, then, do we find such a struggle between equals? Obviously in a multi-
stable system between adapted sub-systems, each of which, being stable, “tries”
to force the other to change in step-functions. . . . If two systems interact, how
much information should each admit? . . . If I am wrestling, there is a great prac-
tical difference between (1) getting information by looking at my opponent with
