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O N T O L O G I C A L T H E A T E R
Our terrestrial wOrld is grOssly bimOdal in its fOrms: either the
fOrms in it are extremely simple, like the run-dOwn clOck, sO that we
dismiss them cOntemptuOusly, Or they are extremely cOmplex, sO that
we think Of them as being quite different, and say they have life.
Ross Ashby,
Design for a Brain
(1960, 231-32)
In the previous chapter I approached cybernetics from an anthropological
angle—sketching out some features of a strange tribe and its interesting
practices and projects, close to us in time and space yet somehow different
and largely forgotten. The following chapters can likewise be read in an
anthropological spirit, as filling in more of this picture. It is, I hope, a good
story. But more can be said about the substance of cybernetics before we
get into details. I have so far described cybernetics as a science of the adap-
tive brain, which is right but not enough. To set the scene for what follows
we need a broader perspective if we are to see how the different pieces fit
together and what they add up to. To provide that, I want to talk now about
ontology
: questions of what the world is like, what sort of entities populate
it, how they engage with one another. What I want to suggest is that the
ontology of cybernetics is a strange and unfamiliar one, very different from
that of the modern sciences. I also want to suggest that
ontology makes a
