Feedback and levels of description, or: What MPEG2 compression can teach you about cybernetics and epistemology

Feedback and levels of description, or: What MPEG2 compression can teach you about cybernetics and epistemology

A fellow student pointed out recently to me that compression algorithms are an excellent way to see feedback at work, and used the example of mpeg2 video compression.  Here we have a system that utilizes multiple levels of abstraction and feedback in order to efficiently compress video data. I will give you a picture or...

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Thinking about thinking about feedback

Thinking about thinking about feedback

Ok I've been thinking about feedback. One thing that struck me as interesting was that feedback, as a concept, seems to assume two things (and probably more): 1) step-wise time (and thus some kind of "state" in which a system can be identified, and thus 2) some kind of 'levels' within and between systems, in...

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Francisco Varela and Ethical Know-How

Francisco Varela and Ethical Know-How

This post is about bringing forth a different way of speaking about ethics, which is usually bogged down with a load of ridiculously unquestioned Western philosophical THOUGHT baggage, which keeps ethics locked nicely away in principles which themselves are never acted, only known. For this reason, Varela's idea that perception is based in ACTION is...

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