Overtime Episode 36 - Cybernetics and Labor - Pt 2 (Patreon)

For our second episode on the history of the discipline of Cybernetics and its relationship to the labor movement, we dive a little deeper into what Cybernetics actually is. We discuss the way Cybernetics seeks to bridge varying disciplines and systems and examine their interrelations, paralleling the dialectical way of looking at the world in Marxism. We also discuss Norbert Wiener's attempt to use his newly formed discipline of cybernetics to help labor, by reaching out to Walter Reuther and the UAW about the perils of approaching automation. Upcoming episodes will discuss the work of W. Ross Ashby, another of the early founders of cybernetics, and his work on the concept of Variety.