Description

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of control and communication in all kinds of systems. The starting point for this book is that cybernetics’ approach to understanding humanity, society and the world has been central to political developments in so-called democratic countries throughout the 20th century.

The Tiqqun collective examines cybernetics as a technology of governance, developed to minimise the number of ‘disturbances’ in our society – a society in which devices have increasingly come to replace humans as governing bodies. How can we keep society together when commercial interests have penetrated every inch of human existence and made any sense of community impossible? Cybernetics’ answer is clear: with the right devices, there is no need for society.

Tiqqun’s ruthless critique can sometimes seem paranoid and dramatic. But compared to all the myths about social progress that inundate us in everyday life, Tiqqun’s perspective is far more objective.