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G R E G O R Y B A T E S O N A N D R . D . L A I N G
S Y M M E T R Y, P S Y C H I A T R Y, A N D T H E S I X T I E S
I thInk that the functIonIng of such hIerarchIes may be compared wIth
the busIness of tryIng to back a truck to whIch one or more traIlers
are attached. each segmentatIon of such a system denotes a reversal
of sIgn, and each added segment denotes a drastIc decrease In the
amount of control. . . . when we consIder the problem of control-
lIng a second traIler, the threshold for jackknIfIng Is drastIcally
reduced, and control becomes, therefore, almost neglIgIble. as I
see It, the world Is made up of a very complex network (rather than
a chaIn) of such entItIes whIch have thIs sort of relatIon to each
other, but wIth thIs dIfference, that many of the entItIes have theIr
own supplIes of energy and perhaps even theIr own Ideas of where they
would lIke to go.
GreGory Bateson, “mInImal requIrements for a theory
of schIzophrenIa” (1959, 268)
The two previous chapters covered the emergence of cybernetics in Britain
from the 1940s onward. At their heart were Walter and Ashby's electrome-
chanical brain models, the tortoise, the homeostat, and DAMS, and the dis-
covery of complexity that went with them—the realization that even simple
models can display inscrutably complex behavior. I emphasized that this
first-generation cybernetics was born in the world of psychiatry, and that,
 
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