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Designing Freedom
Distinguished cyberneticist Stafford Beer states the case for a new science of systems theory and cybernetics. His essays examine such issues as "The Real Threat to All We Hold Most Dear," "The Discarded Tools of Modern Man," "A Liberty Machine in Prototype," "Science in the Service of Man," "The Future That Can Be Demanded Now," and "The Free Man in a Cybernetic World."
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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April 20, 2018
Stafford Beer still is a great name in the systems thinking-world. Beer had the merit of introducing this approach in the world of management, for example through his “viable systems model”, which apparently still inspires people. But perhaps this book is not the ideal introduction to his thinking. It bundles 6 radio lectures he gave for Canadian Radio, in 1973: as such the texts are very volatile and painfully reveal how dated his thinking is (but that is hardly a reproach, we are now 40 years on).
I don’t doubt that Beer meant well: human freedom is his absolute goal, time after time he repeats this. And the analysis instrument that he uses for this is certainly inspiring: namely a more systemic approach to reality, which takes account of constant changeability (he uses the word "variety" consistently). His plea to rid the institutions of their rigidity (a consequence of too much bureaucracy and a too static view on reality), and to democratize them, is quite worthwhile, always in the service of human freedom.
But at the same time, a number of very peculiar elements stand out, when reading this booklet. Stafford Beer, for example, has a very voluntarist belief in the malleability of the society: with good insights, good will and a lot of commitment, ordinary people can put our society back on the right track. That sounds good, but in 2018 we know that it is not all that simple. Another one: Beer swears by an absolute belief in science, it is to be said, the right kind of science (systemic and cybernetic); that smells like scientism, although he absolutely denies this, but what to think about his digression into his own experiment in Chile, commissioned by President Allende: to gather the very latest information about the state of the economy through the ingenious use of computers, to make a better policy possible (in this passage he is actually raved about the men in white coats in the central computer center who were laying the foundation of a new society); in his last lecture he puts that scientism into perspective, but at the same time he calls out Allende's scientific experiment as a model to follow (it looks like Beer was abused by Allende, although the discussion about this is still going on). And finally there is his constantly recurring mantra to put "efficiency" in the management of institutions absolutely central; Beer translates that even in the radical reduction of bureaucracies and government intervention (in contradiction of course with his own experiment in Chile), a plea with which he unconsciously spread the bed for the then rising neoliberalism.
Once again, I do not want to haggle on Beer's good intentions. But his messages are at least ambiguous, and let's be honest, pretty naive. Perhaps we should appreciate this little book as an historical document rather than as an inspiring model for today.
I don’t doubt that Beer meant well: human freedom is his absolute goal, time after time he repeats this. And the analysis instrument that he uses for this is certainly inspiring: namely a more systemic approach to reality, which takes account of constant changeability (he uses the word "variety" consistently). His plea to rid the institutions of their rigidity (a consequence of too much bureaucracy and a too static view on reality), and to democratize them, is quite worthwhile, always in the service of human freedom.
But at the same time, a number of very peculiar elements stand out, when reading this booklet. Stafford Beer, for example, has a very voluntarist belief in the malleability of the society: with good insights, good will and a lot of commitment, ordinary people can put our society back on the right track. That sounds good, but in 2018 we know that it is not all that simple. Another one: Beer swears by an absolute belief in science, it is to be said, the right kind of science (systemic and cybernetic); that smells like scientism, although he absolutely denies this, but what to think about his digression into his own experiment in Chile, commissioned by President Allende: to gather the very latest information about the state of the economy through the ingenious use of computers, to make a better policy possible (in this passage he is actually raved about the men in white coats in the central computer center who were laying the foundation of a new society); in his last lecture he puts that scientism into perspective, but at the same time he calls out Allende's scientific experiment as a model to follow (it looks like Beer was abused by Allende, although the discussion about this is still going on). And finally there is his constantly recurring mantra to put "efficiency" in the management of institutions absolutely central; Beer translates that even in the radical reduction of bureaucracies and government intervention (in contradiction of course with his own experiment in Chile), a plea with which he unconsciously spread the bed for the then rising neoliberalism.
Once again, I do not want to haggle on Beer's good intentions. But his messages are at least ambiguous, and let's be honest, pretty naive. Perhaps we should appreciate this little book as an historical document rather than as an inspiring model for today.
May 21, 2018
Beer’s Designing Freedom offers an interesting but wayward introduction to cybernetic (systems) thinking. In some respects the book looks quite dated. Contemporary readers may wonder why Beer makes such a fuzz of computers, still a relatively rare phenomenon in 1974 but more than ubiquitous in our world today. Also the author’s rather hectoring, messianic tone doesn’t fit the superficially genteel mood of our times. However, the book is still highly topical for readers today as it introduces a number of valuable ideas that help to shed light on our contemporary predicament.
Let’s just start with the title. What if we were able to design a government (or any organised collectivity for that matter, even if it has a commercial purpose) as a (notional) 'liberty machine’. It would only fulfill its purpose within the constraint that it would contribute to individual liberty of the citizens, employees or members who are part of it. It’s a tantalising idea the potential of which is far from exhausted. In fact, many successful and pioneering organisations are rediscovering the laws of self-organisation again today.
For Beer the clue for designing this ‘liberty machine’ lies in the insights offered by cybernetics, ‘the science of effective organisation’. And the core concept here is ‘variety’, depending on the context roughly equivalent to the notions of ‘complexity’ or 'ability to absorb complexity'. Organisations must survive in a dynamic environment. They need an appropriate information metabolism to do so, capturing signals and filtering them in such a way that they are able maintain a balance between the complexity of their operational environment and their proper sense-making powers (a requirement usually known as Ashby’s Law of Requisity Variety). There are basically two approaches to do so: shield ourselves from environmental complexity or increase our regulatory power to handle variety. Beer’s critique is that in our society we have gravitated towards a default strategy of variety reduction, and individual liberties and freedom of choice have been curtailed as a result. The alternative approach - amplifying the variety of the regulatory part of the system - is not even a matter of public debate as it would require us to rethink our managerial and policy making apparatus from the ground up. That idea is at the core of this short book.
And this is where computers come in: they are a potential lever for variety amplification but, as a rule, used in a way that is exactly opposite to what cybernetics would suggest us to do. Beer once ran a IT-supported variety management experiment at national scale in Chile under the tutelage of President Allende. We can trivialise what Beer wanted to do in Chile, but in fact his vision is turned into reality today vastly more effectively by the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook with the aid of AI. And we seem pretty powerless to do something about it (in fact, at this very moment in time I'm using an Amazon-owned platform for an exchange of ideas, feeding an ever more accurate 'model of the public' in private hands.) Beer knew that this risk existed:
Beer elaborates his critique of the alienating and inequitable way of using technology in the fourth lecture included in the book (‘Science in the service of man’). Here he arrives at a point that is a motto theme in much of the cybernetic tradition: our brain is a finite instrument and the complexity of the world is such that we cannot understand at all, ever. Given that biophysical constraint we have to practice variety attenuation. There is no other way. But Beer thinks that we, citizens, should be in charge of where that attenuation happens. It should be a matter of democratic consultation and local decision, not an unarticulated, fuzzy consensus position, perpetuated by our education and media systems, that plays into the hands of crafty operators and careerists.
In the final lecture Beer urges his audience to become an active force in the transition to smarter and more just societary institutions: “We have robbed society of regulatory variety by our passivity. The occasional democratic exercise of a vote is not a big enough variety amplifier.” What is needed is a willingness to set up experimental institutions, deliberately antithetic to the existing ones and supported by the science of effective organising.
Beer’s way of presenting his ideas is probably somewhat outmoded, but that shouldn’t detract from their value. In my opinion, Designing Freedom gives us plenty of important ideas to mull over, and it does so in the space of barely a hundred pages. I also believe that today there is significant potential to turn Beer's ideas in to reality (although, admittedly, the countervailing forces have increased in scope and weight too). In addition to its activist message the book offers a good introduction to a number of basic cybernetic concepts. However, it does not address other key parts of Beer’s legacy: his Viable Systems Model and his theory of Syntegration, which have been discussed elsewhere.
Let’s just start with the title. What if we were able to design a government (or any organised collectivity for that matter, even if it has a commercial purpose) as a (notional) 'liberty machine’. It would only fulfill its purpose within the constraint that it would contribute to individual liberty of the citizens, employees or members who are part of it. It’s a tantalising idea the potential of which is far from exhausted. In fact, many successful and pioneering organisations are rediscovering the laws of self-organisation again today.
For Beer the clue for designing this ‘liberty machine’ lies in the insights offered by cybernetics, ‘the science of effective organisation’. And the core concept here is ‘variety’, depending on the context roughly equivalent to the notions of ‘complexity’ or 'ability to absorb complexity'. Organisations must survive in a dynamic environment. They need an appropriate information metabolism to do so, capturing signals and filtering them in such a way that they are able maintain a balance between the complexity of their operational environment and their proper sense-making powers (a requirement usually known as Ashby’s Law of Requisity Variety). There are basically two approaches to do so: shield ourselves from environmental complexity or increase our regulatory power to handle variety. Beer’s critique is that in our society we have gravitated towards a default strategy of variety reduction, and individual liberties and freedom of choice have been curtailed as a result. The alternative approach - amplifying the variety of the regulatory part of the system - is not even a matter of public debate as it would require us to rethink our managerial and policy making apparatus from the ground up. That idea is at the core of this short book.
And this is where computers come in: they are a potential lever for variety amplification but, as a rule, used in a way that is exactly opposite to what cybernetics would suggest us to do. Beer once ran a IT-supported variety management experiment at national scale in Chile under the tutelage of President Allende. We can trivialise what Beer wanted to do in Chile, but in fact his vision is turned into reality today vastly more effectively by the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook with the aid of AI. And we seem pretty powerless to do something about it (in fact, at this very moment in time I'm using an Amazon-owned platform for an exchange of ideas, feeding an ever more accurate 'model of the public' in private hands.) Beer knew that this risk existed:
"There is an evident risk in installing a model of the public in the computer, since the return loop might be misused by a despotic government or an unscrupulous management. In considering this however we need to bear in mind the cybernetic fact that no regulator can actually work unless it contains a model of whatever is to be regulated. Much of our institutional failure is due to the inadequacy of the contained models. It is perhaps more alarming that private concerns are able to build systems of this type, without anyone's even knowing about their existence, than that democratically elected governments should build them in open view and with legal safeguards."On the governance of the Chilean systems, Beer recounts as follows:
“In the few months that remained to us, we were teaching the workers, for whom this offering of science to the people was created, how to use the most advanced tools yet designed for national economic management. They could sit with their ministers in the economic operations room in Santiago, watching the animated screens, and discussing the alerted signals provided daily by that clever computer program. They had buttons in the arms of their chairs, so that they could command the appearance on other screens of supporting data- to the capacity of 1.200 different colour presentations, focused on sixteen back-projectors. They could also control preliminary experiments in simulation, on a huge animated model of the dynamic system. These people, arm in arm with their science, were intended to become the decision machine for the economy.”Three things strike us here: the use of sophisticated dynamic models to anticipate future developments, the reliance on discursive processes to make sense of this information and to decide on what actions to take, and, last but not least, the governance and ownership of this system by citizens, not technocrats. Much could be said for and against this approach but there is no doubt that it is worth thinking through as a potentially enticing alternative to the current, ineffective, wasteful and opaque way of running our common affairs.
Beer elaborates his critique of the alienating and inequitable way of using technology in the fourth lecture included in the book (‘Science in the service of man’). Here he arrives at a point that is a motto theme in much of the cybernetic tradition: our brain is a finite instrument and the complexity of the world is such that we cannot understand at all, ever. Given that biophysical constraint we have to practice variety attenuation. There is no other way. But Beer thinks that we, citizens, should be in charge of where that attenuation happens. It should be a matter of democratic consultation and local decision, not an unarticulated, fuzzy consensus position, perpetuated by our education and media systems, that plays into the hands of crafty operators and careerists.
In the final lecture Beer urges his audience to become an active force in the transition to smarter and more just societary institutions: “We have robbed society of regulatory variety by our passivity. The occasional democratic exercise of a vote is not a big enough variety amplifier.” What is needed is a willingness to set up experimental institutions, deliberately antithetic to the existing ones and supported by the science of effective organising.
Beer’s way of presenting his ideas is probably somewhat outmoded, but that shouldn’t detract from their value. In my opinion, Designing Freedom gives us plenty of important ideas to mull over, and it does so in the space of barely a hundred pages. I also believe that today there is significant potential to turn Beer's ideas in to reality (although, admittedly, the countervailing forces have increased in scope and weight too). In addition to its activist message the book offers a good introduction to a number of basic cybernetic concepts. However, it does not address other key parts of Beer’s legacy: his Viable Systems Model and his theory of Syntegration, which have been discussed elsewhere.
December 27, 2024
Ce livre devrait être une lecture obligatoire pour tout le monde qui travaille dans l'administration publique. M. Beer énonce bien les problèmes sans tomber dans le cynisme et propose des solutions sans tomber dans l'idéalisme.
Certains des concepts datent, surtout la mention constante de "l'ordinateur" comme un nouveau phénomène, mais on peut les remplacer par la mention de l'IA et dresser des parallèles.
Mais l'explication simple des problèmes de la bureaucratie résonne encore aujourd'hui et propose de bonnes pistes de solution.
Certains des concepts datent, surtout la mention constante de "l'ordinateur" comme un nouveau phénomène, mais on peut les remplacer par la mention de l'IA et dresser des parallèles.
Mais l'explication simple des problèmes de la bureaucratie résonne encore aujourd'hui et propose de bonnes pistes de solution.
June 5, 2023
Short collection of transcribed lectures that works as a general overview of his thought. I'm not convinced that his vision of cybernetics has any definite political content (beyond general notions of ecological balance and of course "freedom" as in the title) but it's an interesting way of conceptualizing social institutions that I hadn't been exposed to before. Also talks briefly about his role in Allende's Chile/project Cybersyn and has a clearsighted view of why it failed (US intervention). Mostly this has given me a taste for cybernetics as an alternative view of technology and high-level social organization that doesn't see a dystopian control society as inevitable.
August 14, 2024
I’m still mourning Salvador Allende… 😕
October 4, 2008
I finally got my own copy of this book (which I've been looking for it since about 1990)...
I'd forgotten just how great it is.
I've been angered lately about the number of absolute falsehoods spread by ALL sides on both current election campaigns (USA and Canada) - sometimes on purpose, often because they simply "don't get it." This book covers some of the reason this is endemic in our societies and at least gives me some hope that someday the leaders of our systems of governance will discover the route to stabilizing our systems. But for now I shake my head in fear and anguish.
Case in point - the current financial market failure and massive bail-out scheme of the Bush administration. As constructed it simply cannot be successful. The system being proposed simply is not viable - if for no other reason it lacks the requisite variety necessary for control(indeed one only has to note how many changes had to be made even before it got from the exec branch to the legislative branch because it was too 'simple' to possibly do more good than harm).
In this book (originally a series of radio lectures on the CBC network in 1973) Beer explores many items - even a quick read gives ample reasons justifying my fears as our control systems increasingly are inadequate for the task at hand.
This is an excellent introduction to the works of Stafford Beer... a start here guide to cybernetics - the science of effective organization. Read it to understand the real issues that face our institutions and society at large.
I'd forgotten just how great it is.
I've been angered lately about the number of absolute falsehoods spread by ALL sides on both current election campaigns (USA and Canada) - sometimes on purpose, often because they simply "don't get it." This book covers some of the reason this is endemic in our societies and at least gives me some hope that someday the leaders of our systems of governance will discover the route to stabilizing our systems. But for now I shake my head in fear and anguish.
Case in point - the current financial market failure and massive bail-out scheme of the Bush administration. As constructed it simply cannot be successful. The system being proposed simply is not viable - if for no other reason it lacks the requisite variety necessary for control(indeed one only has to note how many changes had to be made even before it got from the exec branch to the legislative branch because it was too 'simple' to possibly do more good than harm).
In this book (originally a series of radio lectures on the CBC network in 1973) Beer explores many items - even a quick read gives ample reasons justifying my fears as our control systems increasingly are inadequate for the task at hand.
This is an excellent introduction to the works of Stafford Beer... a start here guide to cybernetics - the science of effective organization. Read it to understand the real issues that face our institutions and society at large.
December 24, 2019
One of my DSA comrades has started a Stafford Beer reading group, and as I have previously been very interested upon hearing this comrade talk a lot about Stafford Beer, I decided to join. The first book we've read has been Designing Freedom, for which I will be missing the actual discussion due to a CC meeting. C'est la vie. It's unfortunate, though, because I'm definitely not any sort of systems design person by natural inclination, so I think I'd have a better time setting the concepts properly into my brain if I took the discussion to hash it out with other people.
Designing Freedom is basically a bundle of lectures, which means it is nice and short, and also you can listen to it on audio from Mr. Beer himself. The audio versions are actually quite nice to listen to, especially if you find people making very dry jokes in a British accent soothing, which I do. Which is good because I might have to listen to the lectures multiple times, which I might actually be able to do, whereas there's no way I'm going to read the book more than once.
As far as actionable items to take away from it to reimagine how to distribute labor and feedback-taking in DSA so it's less exhausting and makes people happier to be involved, well, I'm not quite sure I'm there yet, which is part of why I'm a bit bummed about missing this discussion. Hopefully the later discussions will help me learn to start thinking more concretely about socialist operations management.
Originally posted at In which I am officially in too many book clubs.
Designing Freedom is basically a bundle of lectures, which means it is nice and short, and also you can listen to it on audio from Mr. Beer himself. The audio versions are actually quite nice to listen to, especially if you find people making very dry jokes in a British accent soothing, which I do. Which is good because I might have to listen to the lectures multiple times, which I might actually be able to do, whereas there's no way I'm going to read the book more than once.
As far as actionable items to take away from it to reimagine how to distribute labor and feedback-taking in DSA so it's less exhausting and makes people happier to be involved, well, I'm not quite sure I'm there yet, which is part of why I'm a bit bummed about missing this discussion. Hopefully the later discussions will help me learn to start thinking more concretely about socialist operations management.
Originally posted at In which I am officially in too many book clubs.
March 13, 2023
Thought-provoking and very interesting. I didn't come to this book with a foundation in cybernetics, so the theoretical portions opened up a new field to me (and left me wanting to learn more about it). At the same time, I could tell when the arguments laid out got a bit hand-wavey (e.g. they say people don't like change, but I like change and so do you so people do like change!). I think the gaps in argumentation kept the conclusions from being as airtight as the author believed.
This is a relatively old work, but it feels prescient. I agree that such cybernetic regulatory systems could (and probably do) have enormous impact, although it seems now that tech/investment firms are the ones with the deep datasets and are using them to manipulate society away from rather than towards Beer's ideal. Unfortunately, I'm not fully convinced that Beer's solutions are as prescient as his diagnoses--or at least we seem to have failed to live up to them.
This is a relatively old work, but it feels prescient. I agree that such cybernetic regulatory systems could (and probably do) have enormous impact, although it seems now that tech/investment firms are the ones with the deep datasets and are using them to manipulate society away from rather than towards Beer's ideal. Unfortunately, I'm not fully convinced that Beer's solutions are as prescient as his diagnoses--or at least we seem to have failed to live up to them.
April 1, 2024
A short book by Stafford Beer that is based on the series of the six CBC Massey Lectures given by radio. It's a high level view on how Management Cybernetics could be applied to address the issue of stultified and bureaucratic institutions to create more effective forms on governance.
Perhaps the value of this text lies on the critique of our current institutions rather than the proposed solution offered by Beer. In a world where the rate of change and upheaval never ceases to increase, mass migration, housing crises, and more recently, the advent of AI tools that in Beer's time could have seemed the stuff of science fiction; one cannot help but feel that our institutions are failing us. The reasons for that are masterfully analyzed by Beer using his cybernetic reasoning.
Still as valid today as when it was recorded in 1973 (that's half a century ago now!)
Perhaps the value of this text lies on the critique of our current institutions rather than the proposed solution offered by Beer. In a world where the rate of change and upheaval never ceases to increase, mass migration, housing crises, and more recently, the advent of AI tools that in Beer's time could have seemed the stuff of science fiction; one cannot help but feel that our institutions are failing us. The reasons for that are masterfully analyzed by Beer using his cybernetic reasoning.
Still as valid today as when it was recorded in 1973 (that's half a century ago now!)
March 6, 2023
As a lecture series transcript, there's some amount of repetition and loss of power inherent. But the slim book makes up for that as a cybernetics introduction with great little doodles breaking up each chapter. Beer, despite his protests, falls into the common failure of writers-on-crisis: One wonders how to evaluate the alarms after fifty years. The far more interesting tension is between what resonates today (bureaucracy, individual freedom, pillaging the Third World) and what seems not to (general trust, the potential for precise specification, information availability over wide channels). I found Designing Freedom more inspiring than anything else, though the inspiration is to hard, systemic change.
January 13, 2020
A light introduction to the challenges of system design ("cybernetics", as it used to be called). Unsatisfying only because it leaves you wanting more. Beer has to speak very broadly and generally of the kind of system that accommodates "variety", but it leaves a similar impression to a lot of other futurology.
But I can't deny that I haven't spent the last week looking at the institutions I come into contact with and thinking about "variety attenuators ", so something definitely stuck.
But I can't deny that I haven't spent the last week looking at the institutions I come into contact with and thinking about "variety attenuators ", so something definitely stuck.
December 1, 2023
Really interesting theory of how institutions (should) work. At points confusing but mostly great stuff. For unaware, Stafford was one of the main architects of Chilean Project Cybersyn and these lectures were done after the coup and they are largely inspired by his experience in Chile.
Where Beer lacks is in his imagination beyond the state, especially because lots of stuff he theorizes here does not really require a state.
Where Beer lacks is in his imagination beyond the state, especially because lots of stuff he theorizes here does not really require a state.
July 20, 2022
Frankly one of the most thought provoking books I've ever read. I find it particularly relevant when trying to understand the root cause of our ecological predicament. As the little book is a transcript of the 1973 CBC Massey Lectures, the content really came to life while I simultaneously listened to the lectures.
June 11, 2023
Maybe it's because I read this while jetlagged but I found some of the concepts a little slippery and had to go back to earlier chapters
It's a grower. My only wish is an edition with a good introduction - I'm left wondering how influential have these ideas been in government? Particularly in the 2 countries that Beer appears to have split his time between (Canada and England)
It's a grower. My only wish is an edition with a good introduction - I'm left wondering how influential have these ideas been in government? Particularly in the 2 countries that Beer appears to have split his time between (Canada and England)
December 30, 2021
Beer offers one of the more coherent and interdisciplinary theories to institutional and societal organization and failures of efficiency therein. His analysis on the reinforcing nature of bureaucracy is spot on and the harm to our institutions that this entails holds true nearly 30 years later.
July 19, 2022
The man really did predict everything bad about technocracy over fifty years ago, gave us a model to do better, and then nothing happened - perhaps even he would be shocked to see how low our information-based society has taken us :(
Sound off Stafford Beer, sound off!
Sound off Stafford Beer, sound off!
October 29, 2019
Highly readable (and listenable) lectures by the designer of Cybersyn. Highly recommended.
July 9, 2024
amazing book. anyone in poli sci, econ, or engineering should read this.
September 10, 2016
Gets better on rereading. I think because my understanding on cybernetics is still growing.
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