Cybernetics, Metalanguage, & Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety (Stafford Beer)

Support me on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/thepast33yrs Only power restrains power—only variety restrains variety. The former, informally, could be called Burnham’s Law of Elite Theory, and the latter is more formally known as Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety. In this video, we will discuss some expansive topics: Power, Variety, and the Science of Control: Cybernetics. Also discussed, are the basic parts of a control system: 1) receptors which take in inputs, 2) effectors of action which “do something” or otherwise output the outputs, 3) the “black box” which converts input signals into output signals; in simple cases this is merely a simple and known transfer function, but in complex systems it is merely a “black box,” which Beer refers to as a sensorium or as an anastomotic reticulum, 4) the channels that conduct signals from the receptor inputs to the “black box” and from the “black box” to the output effectors, and 5) a feedback system that seeks to steer and error-correct the system’s output by feeding back a portion or a modified portion of its output back into its input stream. And a discussion of "Brain of the Firm" by Stafford Beer (1972), covering: the fundamentals of Control Systems, Beer’s concept of algedonic loops, Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety, metalanguages, and we’ll briefly give an overview of Beer’s Viable System Model, which is itself a recursive, nested model which contains 5 sub-systems. And a data analysis portion where we evaluate Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) per capita and the material footprint per capita of different nations. CHAPTERS Timestamps: 00:00 Preamble 19:12 Data Analysis 50:15 Stafford Beer Control Systems 1:35:28 Ashby's Law & Cybersyn 1:57:10 Cybernetic Management & The Global Masses 2:07:20 Next Video Preview #cybernetics, #staffordbeer, #systemstheory, #AI, #politicalscience, #globalization, #futurism, #algorithms, #dataanalysis, #metalanguage, #cybersyn SOURCES: Stafford Beer, Brain of the Firm, 1972, 2nd Edition (1980), John Wiley and Sons, Limited. Robert Michels, Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy, 1911, (1915, English Translation), Free Press Second Paperback Edition (1962) Vilfredo Pareto, The Mind & Society, Vol.1, 1935 (English Translation), Harcourt, Brace & Co. Mancur Olson, Power & Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships, 2000, Basic Books (Perseus Books Group) Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities, 1982, Yale University Press, (2022 Paperback, Veritas Paperback) Randall Lloyd, Psycho-Progressivism: The Path to Human Extinction, 2023 UN, Shrinking our material footprint is a global imperative, (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2019/goal-12/) [Accessed: 07/06/2026] Wikipedia, Variety (cybernetics), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_(cybernetics) World Bank, Poverty, Poverty headcount ratio at $3.00 a day (2021 PPP) (% of population), SI.POV.DDAY, (https://data.worldbank.org/topic/11) [Downloaded: 7/01/2026] World Bank, Fertility rate, total (births per woman), (https://genderdata.worldbank.org/en/indicator/sp-dyn-tfrt-in) [Downloaded: 07/01/2026] World Bank, GDP (current USD), (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD) [Downloaded: 10/24/2024] World Bank, Manufacturing Valued Added (current USD), (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.CD) [Downloaded: 6/28/2024] World Bank, Population, (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL) [Downloaded: 11/13/2024] U.S. Census Bureau, Census Bureau Reports Majority of STEM College Graduates Do Not Work in STEM Occupations, July 10, 2014, (https://www.census.gov/newsroom/archives/2014-pr/cb14-130.html) Our World in Data, CO2 Emissions, (https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions) St Louis FRED, Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989, (https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/chart/) World Bank, World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS), (https://wits.worldbank.org/) St. Louis FRED, US Employment in Manufacturing, (https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP) World Bank, Personal remittances, paid (current US$), (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BM.TRF.PWKR.CD.DT) St. Louis FRED, (https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2023/03/when-comparing-wages-and-worker-productivity-the-price-measure-matters/) New York Fed, Household Debt & Credit Report (Q4:2024), (https://www.newyorkfed.org/microeconomics/hhdc.html) IMAGES: Wikicommons, User: Semiprof, Vector Field, (Color Changed & added overlay elements) Gradient 99, CC BY-SA 3.0 UP, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gradient99.png Wikicommons, Ouroboros, User: Lorc, CC BY-SA 3.0, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ouroboros#/media/File:71_Uroboro.svg) (modified to remove scales)