Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 6.5.
The cybernetic
factory as brain. Painting by
Stafford Beer. The
t
,
U
, and
V
machines are labeled on the
smaller painting in the bottom
left. Source: Beer 1994a, 198,
fig. 3.
“Sensations,” is the most important. Nineteen “sensations” are shown in the
diagram, running from “a. tons bought” to “s. tons requested.” Each of these
sensations should be understood as taking the form of numerical data relating
to aspects of the plant or its environment—the current state of production,
the profit and loss account, the balance sheet, as shown in lower levels of the
figures. The “sensation” aspect of this diagram relates to the T-machine of
Beer's formal discussion, and his claim was to have sufficiently
simulated
a
T-machine to make it clear that an automatic one could be built. The group-
ing of data into nineteen categories, for example, entailed “a large number
of decisions . . . which, ultimately, the brain artefact itself is intended to take
by its multiple multiplexing techniques. The research team in the field has,
however, taken these decisions on an informed basis, by operational research
methods” (Beer 1962a, 202).
The “sensations,” then, were to be considered inputs to the T-machine,
and further numerical transformations were supposed to correspond to the
