Post #145855

2026-01-20 19:24 UTC

@pluralistic@mamot.fr 's blog on why social media barons hate sociality reminded me of Stafford Beer's introduction to variety. He starts with a simple system. Then introduces a cat. The cat, doing what cats do, makes the system massively more complex. Beer uses this to explain that an effective system needs as much variety as its environment, or cleverly attune to it. Or you change the environment and shoot the cat. That's what techbros do when we don't conform to their data. They shoot the cat.

Replies (3)

@thecasualcritic@writing.exchange 2026-01-20 20:18

@pluralistic the blog in question is here: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/19/billionaire-solipsism/#sirius-cybernetics The reference to the cat is from "Designing Freedom". And to prove that I'm personally pro-cat, here is a photo of our very own guardian. #cats #cybernetics #tech

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@geolaw@aus.social 2026-01-20 20:59

@thecasualcritic @pluralistic Like with self driving cars. The techbros solution to the variety of pedestrians was to require all pedestrians to wear always-on GPS trackers broadcasting their position. This was a serious suggestion that got rejected.

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@kennebel@noc.social 2026-01-22 12:50

@thecasualcritic @pluralistic if I am understanding this (I may not), it seems to me that many places start off as cat sanctuaries (reddit, Imgur, other examples), and later wanted to chase loyal advertisers instead and shot the cat in order to wrest control from a system that started inherently without. (and what usually made the platform good)

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