Analog, digital, and the cybernetic illusion

Pias, Claus

doi:10.1108/03684920510581710

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The question of what distinguishes the analog from the digital continuously upset the Macy Conferences (Pias, 2003). When a participant proclaimed in 1950 that “synapses are not acting digitally”, he triggered a heated debate that ended in the single moment in the ten‐year conference history “when someone [was] no longer allowed to speak” (Pias, 2005, p. 545; Dupuy, 2000, pp. 114‐115, 138‐139).…”

Section: Background and Previous Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When is analog? When is digital?

Fischer

2011

Kybernetes

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a cybernetic way of seeing analog and digital along with a basic vocabulary for discussing assumptions underlying the use of both terms.Design/methodology/approachTaking analog and digital not as properties of observed phenomena but as properties of observers, I ask not what is digital or analog, but what I do when I use these terms. I analyze introspectively, and report on, what I think my assumptions are when using the two terms.FindingsI develop a basic vocabulary to describe engagements that I describe as analog or digital. This vocabulary is applicable beyond technical contexts and suitable also for discussing social and creative processes. It includes a kind of observer who I call matchmaker.Research limitations/implicationsThe presented research is preliminary and subjective.Originality/valueWhile previous discussions consider analog and digital as properties of observed phenomena, they are considered here as properties of observers. The presented discussion is sufficiently abstract to account for the analog and the digital at various scales, including electronic signal processing and human interaction. The author argues that discussions of engagements described as analog or digital must account for observers of these engagements, including those who act as their matchmakers.

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Section: Background and Previous Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When is analog? When is digital?

Fischer

2011

Kybernetes

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“…The seemingly clear distinction of digital and analog is a result of a long debate ending in a convention not to talk about states in-between (cf. Pias 2005). This then enables a distinct definition as well as the often-stated higher precision of digital signals.…”

Section: Weaving Music Machines Andmentioning

confidence: 98%

Weaving as Binary Art and the Algebra of Patterns

Harlizius-Klück

2017

TEXTILE

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T o refer to the Jacquard loom as a precursor of the computer is a common narrative in histories of computing beginning with Ada Lovelace comparing the punched card operated loom with the calculating engine designed by Charles Babbage: "We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." But this does not mean that Jacquard invented the algebra of patterns. He only constructed the first widely known and used mechanism replacing the drawboy by punched cards to feed pattern information into his mechanism. To control a weave means to decide whether a warp thread is to be picked up or not. Weaving has therefore been a binary art from its very beginning, applying operations of pattern algebra for millennia. Jacquard's cards were the end of this story rather than its beginning, reducing the weaver to an operator who had to step on a single treadle repeatedly. This article argues that algebra is already involved in operating shafts or heddles on ordinary looms, that this algebra was applied tacitly until the first weaving notations were developed, and that these notations make the tacit algebra of patterns recognizable to nonweavers: inventors and engineers.

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“…To continue with the build-up that this article has attempted, the question of technology and its impact on our lives has not merely been a recent concern. Early surrealist writers questioned a world where machines will start thinking (Pias 2005); this was followed by a response from the cybernetician and neurophysiologist Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts in their famous paper on the Logical Calculus of Ideas (1943) where they provoked the question what if our thinking is already done by machine? (McCulloch and Pitts 1943).…”

Section: Notions Of Humanism Machinism and Technology: Third Way Arcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(McCulloch and Pitts 1943). Claus Pias (2005) in his essay on Analog, Digital, and the Cybernetic Illusion describes McCulloch's techno-philosophy to be:…”

Section: Notions Of Humanism Machinism and Technology: Third Way Arcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[…] subverting or deconstructing several hierarchical differences like human and non-human, subject and object, psyche' and techne', man and apparatus. (Pias 2005). The reality is that cognitive scientists and neurophysiologists have always been concerned with the mechanization of the mind, not the humanization of the machine (Dupuy 2008).…”

Section: Notions Of Humanism Machinism and Technology: Third Way Arcmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Third way architecture: Between cybernetics and phenomenology

Murrani

2011

Technoetic Arts

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This article in its essence aims to challenge and unfold, each at a time, two different fields of methodology-cybernetics and phenomenology-that have direct effects on the product of being and the process of becoming in architectural discourse. Furthermore, this article suggests a third way philosophy for architecture that relates notions of post-phenomenology and technoscience, and considers both to be equally vital to development and speculation within current architectural discourse. First, the history of each of the two fields-cybernetics and phenomenology-will be unveiled with a focus on exploring their impact upon architecture in particular and diverse fields such as other art disciplines, computer science and psychology. Second, a critique of the historic rivalry between pioneers in each of the two fields will be unpacked through their errors and limits. Third, the article will discuss attempts at converging the two fields in order to address the relationship of notions of humanism, machinism and technology. Finally, a declaration of the characteristics of such a convergence that will lead to a third way philosophy for architectural discourse will be asserted.

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Analog, digital, and the cybernetic illusion

Cited by 15 publications

References 6 publications

When is analog? When is digital?

When is analog? When is digital?

Weaving as Binary Art and the Algebra of Patterns

Third way architecture: Between cybernetics and phenomenology

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