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adaptive brain in this sense. This does not get one any further in understand-
ing how the human brain, say, works, but it is an observation one might be able
to exploit in practice. Instead of trying to build a superhomeostat to function
as the U-machine—and Beer must have known in the mid-1950s that Ashby's
DAMS project was not getting far—one could simply try to enroll some
naturally occurring adaptive system as the U-machine. And during the second
half of the 1950s, Beer had accordingly embarked on “an almost unbounded
survey of naturally occurring systems in search of materials for the construc-
tion of cybernetic machines” (Beer 1959, 162). The idea was to find some
lively system that could be induced to engage in a process of reciprocal veto-
ing with another lively system such as a factory, so that each would eventually
settle down in some agreeable sector of its environment (now including each
other).
In 1962 Beer published a brief and, alas, terminal report on the state of
the art, which makes fairly mind-boggling reading (Beer 1962b), and we can
glance at some of the systems he discussed there to get a flavor of this work.
The list begins with quasi-organic electrochemical systems that Beer called
“fungoids,” which he had worked on both alone and in collaboration with
Pask. This was perhaps the aspect of the project that went furthest, but one
has to assume Pask took the lead here, since he published several papers in
this area in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so I postpone discussion of these
systems to the next chapter. Then follows Beer's successful attempt to use
positive and negative feedback to train young children (presumably his own)
to solve simultaneous equations without teaching them the relevant math-
ematics—to turn the children into a performative (rather than cognitive)
mathematical machine. Beer then moves on to discuss various thought ex-
periments involving animals (1962b, 28-29):
Some effort was made to devise a “mouse” language which would enable mice
to play this game—with cheese as a reward function. . . . In this way I was led
to consider various kinds of animal, and various kinds of language (by which
I mean intercommunicating boxes, ladders, see-saws, cages connected by pul-
leys and so forth). Rats and pigeons have both been studied for their learning
abilities. . . . The Machina Speculatrix of Grey Walter might also be considered
(with apologies to the organic molecule). . . . However no actual machines
were built. . . . By the same token, bees, ants, termites, have all been systemati-
cally considered as components of self-organizing systems, and various “brain-
storming” machines have been designed by both Pask and myself. But again
none has been made.
