Tag Archives: Cibernética

Cfp_Streams of Consciousness: Data, Cognition and Intelligent Devices

[Ana Gross avisa de la siguiente conferencia que está co-organizando] 

Streams of Consciousness: Data, Cognition and Intelligent Devices21st and 22nd of April 2016, Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick.

“What’s on your mind?” This is the question to which every Facebook status update now responds. Millions of users sharing their thoughts in one giant performance of what Clay Shirky once called “cognitive surplus”. Contemporary media platforms aren’t simply a stage for this cognitive performance. They are more like directors, staging scenes, tweaking scripts, working to get the best or fully “optimized” performance. As Katherine Hayles has pointed out, media theory has long taken for granted that we think “through, with and alongside media”. Pen and paper, the abacus, and modern calculators are obvious cases in point, but the list quickly expands and with it longstanding conceptions of the Cartesian mind dissolve away. Within the cognitive sciences, cognition is now routinely described as embodied, extended, and distributed. They too recognize that cognition takes place beyond the brain, in between people, between people and things, and combinations thereof. The varieties of specifically human thought, from decision-making to reasoning and interpretation, are now considered one part of a broader cognitive spectrum shared with other animals, systems, and intelligent devices. Continue reading

Cfp_‘Thinking with Algorithms: Cognition and Computation in the Work of N. Katherine Hayles

Call for Papers: Workshop ‘Thinking with Algorithms: Cognition and Computation in the Work of N. Katherine Hayles’. Gala Theatre, Durham, 26-27 February 2015. Confirmed keynote speakers: Katherine Hayles (Duke University); Donald Mackenzie (Edinburgh University); Luciana Parisi (Goldsmiths, University of London); Celia Lury (Warwick University); David Berry (Sussex University). Organisers: Prof. Louise Amoore and Dr Volha Piotukh, Geography Department, Durham University. Continue reading

The Synco Boys: those forgotten pre-neoliberal economic experts. An interview with Eden Medina

Portada revolucionarios ciberneticos.inddEden Medina has written one of the most fascinating books about Chile’s recent history, Cybernetic Revolutionaries (MIT Press) published originally in 2011 and recently translated by LOM as Revolucionarios Cibernéticos. Tecnología y política en el Chile de Salvador Allende. From a STS approach, and based on archive material and extensive interviews, the book describes in detail the history of ‘Proyecto Synco’, the attempt lead by British cybernetician Stafford Beer and Fernando Flores to coordinate and manage the Chilean socialist economy. Taking the translation of the book as an excuse, we asked Eden to talk to Estudios de la Economía. The only problem was that at that time, November 2013, we were each in a different country, Eden in the US, Manuel in the UK and José in Denmark. But we finally had the Skype conversation we share with you here. Unfortunately, at the time of the meeting Manuel was in a very noisy café. Therefore, some parts (particularly answer to question 1) are difficult to hear. Anyway, we are very happy to share this podcast, hoping it will motivate listeners to read Eden’s book and inspire more detailed historical research of this kind. Continue reading

Lanzamiento libro “Revolucionarios Cibernéticos”

Portada revolucionarios ciberneticos.inddEl próximo miércoles 28 de agosto a las 19:30 horas, se efectuará en la Fundación Salvador Allende (República 475, Santiago Centro) el lanzamiento del libro “Revolucionarios Cibernéticos. Tecnología y política en el Chile de Salvador Allende”, investigación de la autora norteamericana Eden Medina sobre el proyecto SYNCO, la cual ha sido traducida recientemente al español por LOM Ediciones.

El libro, que fue originalmente su tesis de doctorado en el Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), nace del interés de la autora por conocer cómo se aplicaba la cibernética en lugares alejados de los centros de poder. La investigación la llevó por archivos, bibliotecas y personas en tres paises: Gran Bretaña, Estados Unidos y Chile. En estos lugares realizó aproximadamente cincuenta entrevistas, tanto a personal involucrado en el Proyecto como a ex-funcionarios de los gobiernos de Allende y Frei, entre otros. Continue reading