New Books in Systems and Cybernetics
Episodes
Elizabeth Sawin, "Multisolving: Creating Systems Change in a Fractured World" (Island Press, 2024)
11 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Now, Dr. Elizabeth Sawin has dedicated her career to the theory and practice of creating change in complex systems. In 2021, she founded and is curren...
157 Mangrum's Comical Computation (JP)
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When does comedy become more than a laugh? Ben Mangrum of MIT joins RtB to discuss his new book, The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to ...
John Horn, "Inside the Competitor's Mindset: How to Predict Their Next Move and Position Yourself for Success" (MIT Press, 2023)
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Inside the Competitor's Mindset: How to Predict Their Next Move and Position Yourself for Success (MIT Press, 2023) offers a roadmap to help leaders...
Rebecca Charbonneau, "Mixed Signals: Alien Communication Across the Iron Curtain" (Polity, 2024)
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the shadow of the Cold War, whispers from the cosmos fueled an unlikely alliance between the US and USSR. The search for extraterrestrial intellige...
Pete Barbrook-Johnson and Alexandra S. Penn, "Systems Mapping: How to Build and Use Causal Models of Systems" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022)
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is a growing need across social, environmental, and policy challenges for richer, more nuanced, yet actionable and participatory understanding o...
Anthony Hodgson, "Ready for Anything: Designing Resilience for a Transforming World" (Triarchy Press, 2011)
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Recently I had a chance to sit down for a long overdue chat with Anthony (Tony) Hodgson. When we last spoke it happened to be for my very first episod...
A Better Way to Buy Books
12 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alre...
Frank Jacob, "Wallerstein 2.0: Thinking and Applying World-Systems Theory in the 21st Century" (Transcript Publishing, 2022)
08 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems theory can help to better understand and describe developments of the 21st century. The contributors of Wallerst...
The Science of Science: A Discussion with Aaron Clauset
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Aaron Clauset, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in the BioFrontiers Institute. ...
Robert Falconer, "The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession" (Great Mystery Press, 2023)
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I interview Bob Falconer about his new book, The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit Possession (Great Myster...
Pamela M. Lee, "Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present" (MIT Press, 2020)
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In her groundbreaking and timely book Think Tank Aesthetics: Midcentury Modernism, the Cold War, and the Neoliberal Present (MIT Press, 2020), disti...
Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
JoAnne Yates, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management, Emerita and Professor of Managerial Communication and Work and Organization Studies at MIT’...
David LePoire, "Time Patterns in Big History: Cycles, Fractals, Waves, Transitions, and Singularities" (2020)
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There is the common saying, “history doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Are there any discernible patterns in history, and if so, what ...
What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Chris Gondek interviews Ed Finn, author of the new book What Algorithms Want. Tune in for an interesting discussion on algorithm dis...
Bernard D. Geoghegan, "Code: From Information Theory to French Theory" (Duke UP, 2023)
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan traces the shared intellectual and political history of computer scientists, cyberneticists, anthropologists, linguists, a...
Peter Jones and Kristel van Ael, "Design Journeys Through Complex Systems" (Bis Publishers, 2022)
29 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As I slowly settle into 2023 — reflecting on the blur that was 2022 — I can’t help but think about the complex problems (aka big messes!) we fac...
Technocracy Now! Part 2: Exploring Technocracy through Cybernetics
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On part #2 of Technocracy Now, we tell stories of cybernetic technocracies. First, we hear the story of Charles A. McClelland, a liberal political sci...
Xiao Liu, "Information Fantasies: Precarious Mediation in Postsocialist China" (U Minnesota Press, 2019)
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
International and transnational historiography has given us vivid glimpses of the development and impact of cybernetics on a national scale in such co...
Frank Uit de Weerd and Marita Fridjhon, "Systems Inspired Leadership" (CRR Global, 2021)
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Listeners who have tuned in to my most recent episodes here on Systems and Cybernetics will be familiar with what seems be a current running theme. So...
David Ehrlichman, "Impact Networks: Creating Connection, Sparking Collaboration, and Catalyzing Systemic Change" (Berrett-Koehler, 2021)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I recently caught up with the very busy David Erlichman, co-founder and coordinator of the Converge network (www.converge.net), about his fantastic b...
Carol Sanford, "Indirect Work: A Regenerative Change Theory for Businesses, Communities, Institutions and Humans" (Interoctave, 2022)
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I recently got a chance to talk to Carol Sanford about her newest book Indirect Work: A Regenerative Change Theory for Businesses, Communities, Ins...
Mark Andrejevic, "Automated Media" (Routledge, 2019)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this era of pervasive automation, Mark Andrejevic provides an original framework for tracing the logical trajectory of automated media and their so...
Adam Day, "States of Disorder, Ecosystems of Governance: Complexity Theory Applied to UN Statebuilding in the DRC and South Sudan" (Oxford UP, 2022)
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today's vision of world order is founded upon the concept of strong, well-functioning states, in contrast to the destabilizing potential of failed or ...
Jessica M. Wilson, "Metaphysical Emergence" (Oxford UP, 2021)
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Is a tree nothing but its material makeup, or does reality include trees above and beyond what they are made of? How about consciousness – nothing b...
Shannon M. Mussett, "Entropic Philosophy: Chaos, Breakdown, and Creation" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everything is breaking down. Chaos is increasing. Entropy is not just a metaphor, although it also that. In Entropic Philosophy: Chaos, Breakdown, an...
Mark Neocleous, "The Politics of Immunity: Security and the Policing of Bodies" (Verso, 2022)
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our contemporary political condition is obsessed with immunity. The immunity of bodies and the body politic; personal immunity and herd immunity; how ...
Lene Andersen, "Metamodernity: Meaning and Hope in a Complex World" (Nordic Bildung, 2019)
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
So what is metamodernity you may ask, and what does it have to do with systems thinking and cybernetics? Well, I recently had a chance to find out for...
Florian Jaton, "The Constitution of Algorithms: Ground-Truthing, Programming, Formulating" (MIT Press, 2021)
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Constitution of Algorithms: Ground-Truthing, Programming, Formulating (MIT Press, 2021) is a laboratory study that investigates how algorithms ...
Sean Kelly, "Becoming Gaia: On the Threshold of Planetary Initiation" (Integral Imprint, 2020)
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I had the pleasure of speaking with Sean Kelly, professor of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of I...
Fritjof Capra, "Patterns of Connection: Essential Essays from Five Decades" (High Road Books, 2021)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first Systems and Cybernetics episode of 2022! After a short break over the holidays to rest and spend time with family (and, of course...
Helga Nowotny, "In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms" (Polity, 2021)
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Helga Nowotny about her new book In AI We Trust: Power, Illusion and Control of Predictive Algorithms (Polity, 2021). One of the ...
Thomas Huckle and Tobias Neckel, "Bits and Bugs: A Scientific and Historical Review of Software Failures in Computational Science" (SIAM, 2019)
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A true understanding of the pervasive role of software in the world demands an awareness of the volume and variety of real-world software failures and...
Jeremy Lent, "The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find our Place in the Universe" (New Society, 2021)
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Systems and Cybernetics I had the pleasure of spending an hour with Jeremy Lent, talking with him about his newest book The Web of...
Gavin Van Horn et al., "Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, 5-Volume Set" (Center for Humans and Nature, 2021)
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From The Center for Humans and Nature, Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations is a five-volume collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and sto...
Josep M. Coll, "Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation" (Routledge, 2021)
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I recently sat down with Josep M. Coll to discuss his new book Buddhist and Taoist Systems Thinking: The Natural Path to Sustainable Transformation ...
Bernard Scott, "Cybernetics for the Social Sciences" (Brill, 2021)
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, I have the great pleasure of finally getting to talk with one of the “unsung heroes” of cybernetics, whose work has finally begun...
Paul Milgrom, "Discovering Prices: Auction Design in Markets with Complex Constraints" (Columbia UP, 2017)
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Neoclassical economic theory shows that under the right conditions, prices alone can guide markets to efficient outcomes. But what if it it’s hard t...
Alvin E. Roth, "Who Gets What--and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design" (HMH, 2015)
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Who Gets What — and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design (Mariner Books, 2015), Nobel Memorial Prize Winner Alvin Roth exp...
Vanilla Beer and Allenna Leonard, "Stafford Beer the Father of Management Cybernetics" (2019)
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I am in conversation with artist and author Vanilla Beer about her 2019 book Stafford Beer: The Father of Management Cybernetics. Wh...
Bruce Clarke, "Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Often seen as an outlier in science, Gaia has run a long and varied course since its formulation in the 1970s by atmospheric chemist James Lovelock an...
Magnus Ramage and Karen Shipp, "Systems Thinkers" (Springer, 2020)
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I spoke with Magnus Ramage, co-author of Systems Thinkers (Springer, 2020). This second edition provides an update to Ramage’s an...
Raghav Rajagopalan, "Immersive Systemic Knowing: Advancing Systems Thinking Beyond Rational Analysis" (Springer Nature, 2020)
17 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, we speak with Ragav Rajagopalan about his book, Immersive Systemic Knowing: Advancing Systems Thinking Beyond Rational Analysis, out...
James Ladyman and K. Wiesner, "What Is a Complex System?" (Yale UP, 2020)
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
While i find it pretty easy to recognize when i'm reading articles in complexity science, i've never been satisfied by definitions of complexity and r...
Martin Reynolds and Sue Holwell, "Systems Approaches to Making Change: A Practical Guide" (Springer, 2020)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Practitioners from all professional domains are increasingly confronted with incidences of systemic failure, yet poorly equipped with appropriate tool...
Warren Mansell, "The Interdisciplinary Handbook of Perceptual Control Theory" (Academic Press, 2020)
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Regular listeners to this podcast will be well aware of my strong conviction that the Perceptual Control Theory initially formulated by William T. Pow...
Tyson Yunkaporta, "Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World" (HarperOne, 2021)
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Although it is not described as such anywhere in the book, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (HarperOne, 2021) is indeed a syst...
Steve Dixon, "Cybernetic-Existentialism: Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others in Contemporary Arts and Performance" (Routledge, 2020)
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Like the transdiscipline of cybernetics, the philosophical movement known as Existentialism rose to prominence in the decade following World War II, w...
Matthew O. Jackson, "The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors" (Vintage, 2019)
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Social networks existed and shaped our lives long before Silicon Valley startups made them virtual. For over two decades economist Matthew O. Jackson...
Jóse-Rodriguo Córdoba-Pachón, "Managing Creativity: A Systems Thinking Journey" (Routledge, 2018)
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For over a century, creativity has unfolded as a valuable field of knowledge. Emerging from disciplines like psychology, management and education, the...
Ray Ison and Ed Straw, "The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency" (Routledge, 2020)
08 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in Climate Emergency (Routledge, 2020) is a persuasive, lively book that shows how systems thinking ...
Hilton L. Root, "Network Origins of the Global Economy: East vs. West in a Complex Systems Perspective" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
18 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty-eight years after Francis Fukuyama declared the “end of history” and pronounced Western-style liberalism as the culmination of a Hegelian n...
Matthew J. Wolf-Meyer, "Unraveling: Remaking Personhood in a Neurodiverse Age" (U Minnesota Press, 2020)
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Twentieth-century neuroscience fixed the brain as the basis of consciousness, the self, identity, individuality, even life itself, obscuring the funda...
Nora Bateson. "Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing Through Other Patterns" (Triarchy Press, 2016)
16 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“To be a participant in a complex system is to desire to be both lost and found in the interrelationships between people, nature and ideas.” Nora ...
Ray Ison, "Systems Practice: How to Act In Situations of Uncertainty and Complexity in a Climate-Change World" (Springer, 2017)
25 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While various systems theories have received rigorous treatments across the literature of the field, reliable and robust advice for systems practic...
Anthony Hodgson, "Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World" (Part 2) (Routledge, 2020)
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second episode of a two-part conversation with Hodgson, and in it we pick up our conversation on anticipatory systems and the role they pl...
Anthony Hodgson, "Systems Thinking for a Turbulent World: A Search for New Perspectives" (Routledge, 2020)
07 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the view of Anthony Hodgson, fragmentation of local and global societies is escalating, and this is aggravating vicious cycles. To heal the rifts, ...
T. Fischer and C.M. Herr, "Design Cybernetics: Navigating the New" (Springer, 2019)
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Those who have followed this podcast in the past, and those who follow developments in cybernetics in the present, will be no strangers to the name Ra...
Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...
Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. B...
Matt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020)
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat....
Phillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020)
25 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Philli...
K. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020)
30 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. How...
Safi Bahcall, "Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries" (St. Martins, 2019)
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Safi Bahcall's Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries (St. Martin's Press, 2019) reveals a s...
Alberto Cairo, "How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information" (Norton, 2019)
03 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if we don’t understand what we’re looking at? Social media has made charts, i...
Kathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trad...
J. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019)
24 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude t...
Michael E. Kerr, "Bowen Theory’s Secrets: Revealing the Hidden Life of Families" (Norton, 2019)
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A pivotal development in the history of psychology was the invention of family systems theory by psychiatrist Murray Bowen. He was among the first to ...
Raul Espejo, "Cybernetics and Systems: Social and Business Decisions" (Routledge, 2019)
10 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Regular listeners of this podcast will, no doubt, be familiar with the name of Raul Espejo, former Director of Operations of Stafford Beer’s famed C...
Pamela Buckle Henning, "A Guide to Systems Research: Philosophy, Processes, Practice" (Springer, 2017)
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Like a number of the books discussed on this podcast, A Guide to Systems Research: Philosophy, Processes, Practice (Springer, 2017), was intended to f...
Discussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more de...
Gary Metcalf, "Social Systems and Design" (Springer Verlag, 2014)
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the opening chapter of his edited volume, Social Systems and Design, out from Springer in 2014, Gary Metcalf asks if it is possible to establish et...
George E. Mobus and Michael C. Kalton, "Principles of Systems Science" (Springer Verlag, 2015)
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Of the many barriers to a more robust presence for systems approaches in the academy, the relative scarcity of sufficient introductory textbooks in th...
McKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century" (Verso, 2017)
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention. The chapters of Gener...
Richard S. Marken, “Doing Research on Purpose: A Control Theory Approach to Experimental Psychology” (New View Publications, 2014)
19 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Listeners familiar with our recent podcasts exploring the remarkable legacy of William T. Powers revolutionary Perceptual Control Theory of human beha...
Warren Mansell, “A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features” (Routledge, 2012)
26 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
To many, the title, A Transdiagnostic Approach to CBT using Method of Levels Therapy: Distinctive Features (Routledge, 2012) , may seem incongruous w...
Peter Harries-Jones, “Upside-Down Gods: Gregory Bateson’s World of Difference” (Fordham UP, 2016)
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The work of polymath Gregory Bateson has long been the road to cybernetics travelled by those approaching this trans-disciplinary field from the direc...
Byron Reese, “The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity” (Simon & Schuster, 2018)
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity (Simon & Schuster, 2018), futurist, technologist, and C...
Albert Müller, ed., “The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name: Seven Days With Second-Order Cybernetics” (Fordham UP, 2014)
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Between his retirement from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne in 1975 and his death in 2002, many cyberneticians made the pilgrimage to P...
Rob Dekkers, “Applied Systems Theory” (Springer, 2017)
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As Reader in Industrial Management in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow, Rob Dekkers is well positioned to survey the curren...
Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik, “Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It” (Penguin, 2018)
26 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How can we learn from large system failures? In their new book Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (Penguin Press, 2018), Chri...
David Peter Stroh, “Systems Thinking For Social Change” (Chelsea Green, 2015)
20 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
While Systems Thinking has enjoyed an increasing amount of societal influence through work of such practitioner/authors as Peter Senge, it is also tru...
Kenneth Sayre, “Cybernetics and the Philosophy of Mind” (Routledge, 2015)
21 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The cybernetics community owes a great debt of thanks to the editors of Routledge Library Editions: Philosophy of Mind series, for bringing to light a...
Eden Medina, “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile” (MIT Press, 2011)
01 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It would be difficult to argue against Stafford Beer’s Project Cybersyn as the most bold and audacious chapter in the history of cybernetics. In t...
Richard S. Marken and Timothy A. Carey, “Controlling People” (Australian Academic Press, 2015)
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The word “control”, with its seemingly instantaneous mental associations with forms of top-down oppression, is one that makes even some cybernetic...
Karl H. Muller et al., “New Horizons for Second-Order Cybernetics” (World Scientific, 2017)
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In their volume, New Horizons for Second-Order Cybernetics (World Scientific, 2017), editors Alexander Riegler, Karl H. Muller and Stuart A. Umpelby h...
Bruce Clarke, “Neocybernetics and Narrative” (University of Minnesota Press, 2014)
22 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Literature and Science at Texas Tech University, Bruce Clarke has spent the last decade-plus publishing groundbrea...
Anthimos Tsirigotis, “Cybernetics, Warfare, and Discourse” Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
06 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, we will be talking to Anthimos Alexandros Tsirigotis about his book Cybernetics, Warfare, and Discourse: The Cybernetisation of Warfa...
Molly Wright Steenson, “Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape” (MIT Press, 2017)
27 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For most people the field of architecture is not what they think about when discussing artificial intelligence as we describe it today. Yet, architect...
Dmitry Novikov, “Cybernetics: Past to Future” (Springer Verlag, 2016)
15 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With all of its entailed engagements with epistemology, emergence, and self-organization, cybernetics began (and arguably still is) the science of com...
John Mingers, “Systems Thinking, Critical Realism and Philosophy: A Confluence of Ideas” (Routledge, 2014(
22 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the fields of systems and cybernetics, such movements as Soft Systems Methodology and Second-Order Cybernetics have undermined the objective realis...
Liss C. Werner, “Cybernetics: State of the Art” (Tech Uni of Berlin Press, 2017)
09 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s no secret that we continue to live in the midst of digital revolution that continues to unfold in a rapidly accelerating fashion. Digital conne...
Anthony Chaney, “Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Rise of Ecological Consciousness” (UNC Press, 2017)
01 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Anthony Chaney teaches history and writing at the University of North Texas at Dallas. His book Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Ris...
Brian Clegg, “Big Data: How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our Lives” (Icon Books, 2017)
19 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Big Data: How the Information Revolution Is Transforming Our Lives (Icon Books, 2017), by Brian Clegg, is a relatively short book about a subject that...
Gualtiero Piccinini, “Physical Computation: A Mechanistic Account” (Oxford UP, 2016)
15 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A popular way of thinking about the mind and its relation to physical stuff is in terms of computation. This general information-processing approach t...
Kees van Deemter, “Computational Models of Referring: A Study in Cognitive Science” (MIT Press, 2016)
22 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Sometimes we have to depend on philosophy to explain to us why something apparently simple is in fact extremely complicated. The way we use referring ...
David Danks, “Unifying the Mind: Cognitive Representations as Graphical Models” (MIT Press, 2014)
15 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
For many cognitive scientists, psychologists, and philosophers of mind, the best current theory of cognition holds that thinking is in some sense comp...
Tara H. Abraham, “Rebel Genius: Warren S. McCulloch’s Transdisciplinary Life in Science” (MIT Press, 2016)
11 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Fueling his bohemian lifestyle and anti-authoritarian attitude with a steady diet of ice cream and whiskey, along with a healthy dose of insomnia, War...
Andy Clark, “Surfing Uncertainty: Prediction, Action, and Embodied Mind” (Oxford UP, 2016)
15 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The predictive processing hypothesis is a new unified theory of neural and cognitive function according to which our brains are prediction machines: t...
Mary Chayko, “Superconnected: The Internet, Digital Media, and Techno-Social Life” (SAGE, 2016)
13 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
New technology has made us more connected than ever before. This has its advantages: instantaneous communication, expanded circles of influence, acces...
Ronald R. Kline, “The Cybernetics Moment: Or, Why We Call Our Age the Information Age” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015)
08 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and...