Assembly III: Basement9
There are two forms of feedback: positive and negative feedback.
Negative feedback is what happens, when a little bit of the energy produced within a system is fed back into it, to control and regulate itself, whenever an error is detected. It is called ‘negative’ because the response goes in the opposite direction to the ‘error’. When driving a car, if the car goes too far to the right, you steer a bit more to the left. The process repeats, and the system corrects itself; calmly hovering, never overshooting, never threatening its own functioning, keeping a steady balance. Negative feedback was the main model of power, communication and information systems in the 20th century. It all worked, for some time.
But, we reached a tipping point.
The system inverted.
Today, we worship a chaotic god.
The new ruler of the 21st century is positive feedback. It is what happens, if you leave a guitar too close to the amp. The current feeds itself back in, but not to regulate. Rather, it grows exponentially. It quickly goes out of balance, and escapes control. The system is screaming. It exploded into a complexity that destroys the social fabric of society. Regulation has turned into transgression, energy into violence, control into loss.
The valve has burst. The filter is gone. Communication itself became the enemy.
Have you heard of Maxwell’s demon?
Maxwell’s demon is a mediator, a decider, a regulator of states. In classic thermodynamics, Maxwell’s demon is a fictional character that helps us to imagine a more orderly universe, a universe with limitless energy and no entropy. What we are looking for is what you could call Shannon’s demon. A demon that will help us bring some more order to the information age.
Interested?
EXPLORE BASEMENT9: June 3-6, 2021
https://www.nuncsociety.com/nunc-assembly-iii
There are two forms of feedback: positive and negative feedback.
Negative feedback is what happens, when a little bit of the energy produced within a system is fed back into it, to control and regulate itself, whenever an error is detected. It is called ‘negative’ because the response goes in the opposite direction to the ‘error’. When driving a car, if the car goes too far to the right, you steer a bit more to the left. The process repeats, and the system corrects itself; calmly hovering, never overshooting, never threatening its own functioning, keeping a steady balance. Negative feedback was the main model of power, communication and information systems in the 20th century. It all worked, for some time.
But, we reached a tipping point.
The system inverted.
Today, we worship a chaotic god.
The new ruler of the 21st century is positive feedback. It is what happens, if you leave a guitar too close to the amp. The current feeds itself back in, but not to regulate. Rather, it grows exponentially. It quickly goes out of balance, and escapes control. The system is screaming. It exploded into a complexity that destroys the social fabric of society. Regulation has turned into transgression, energy into violence, control into loss.
The valve has burst. The filter is gone. Communication itself became the enemy.
Have you heard of Maxwell’s demon?
Maxwell’s demon is a mediator, a decider, a regulator of states. In classic thermodynamics, Maxwell’s demon is a fictional character that helps us to imagine a more orderly universe, a universe with limitless energy and no entropy. What we are looking for is what you could call Shannon’s demon. A demon that will help us bring some more order to the information age.
Interested?
EXPLORE BASEMENT9: June 3-6, 2021
https://www.nuncsociety.com/nunc-assembly-iii
