The Principia Cybernetica Web is being linked to by more and more other Web
pages. Many of them only mention the name of the project as anchor, or include
some of our own characterizations of the project, but some of them also add a
personal evaluation. This gives a good idea of how Principia Cybernetica Web is
perceived by others, with quotations such as:
"Principia Cybernetica Project. Philosophy on the Net. As only could
be done on the Net. This is complex but amazing." (Cool links)
"an excellent resource for cybernetics, systems theory, and other
disciplines often mentioned in Neuro-Linguistic Programming
circles" (Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Design Human
Engineering )
"The most impressive Cybernetics resource I've ever seen."
(Intelligent Systems )
"The stated goal of the Principia Cybernetica Project is to link all of
Mankind's knowledge... have to give them credit for ambition."
(Recommended Internet Resources)
"An intriguing place
"(http://www.honors.indiana.edu/docs/interest.html)
"congratulations on a job well-done, both in initiating Principia
Cybernetica in the first place, and also in implementing the Principia
Cybernetica Web, which is a rare and rich site on the Net." (Arkuat's
comments on PCP )
"...and finally, the ultimate...
Principia Cybernetica" (Onar Aam's Related Servers page)
"An extremely sensible philosophy. The next step in human
evolution!" (Expanding Your Consciousness )
" For some theoretical background try [...] the Principia Cybernetica
Web which will stretch your mind a little" (Media lab).
"What can artificial systems tell us about the meaning of life? What
are we doing here anyway? These are some of the questions tackled
on the PCP's Web server at the Free University of Brussels." (Global
Network Navigator)
"an excellent site" (Wiener: ideas)
" This is a remarkable site: Systems Science, Feedback Loops, etc. It's a
very busy site, so be patient and keep trying." (Quality related
Information Sources)
"The cool, the innovative, the excellent - they're all here in our
gallery of Internet resources that exemplify the pioneering spirit of the
Internet. These are the pages we like this week: December 30, 1994 to
January 5, 1995. Academia: Cybernetics and Systems Theory"
(Netscape's "What's Cool" list)
"By now the alarm was permanently set at 4:30 am but Timothy Alan
Hall never heard it. He had rewired the little clock radio to activate an
ancient reel-to-reel recorder on the other side of the trailer, hooked up
an equally old set of theatre speakers and had it rigged to play his tape
recording of a vintage 8086 computer booting up off dual floppies,
grinding into first gear with a seriously irritating reminder of days
long gone.[...] Tim was perfectly aware of the existence of memetic
evolution, an obvious competition going on between genes and
memes and his favorite web site was Principia Cybernetica which he
studied when time permitted. The various philosophical subjects and
New Agey topics failed to hold his interest for long but the truth was
that memes did exist, were powerfully motivated and his own life
had been changing positively because of them. The truth was
inescapable."(TRAP CITY: A Serial Story)
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If anybody has come across other interesting references to PCP Web, please
let me know so that I can add them to the list. (they don't need to be
positive, critical evaluations are in a way more interesting since they
point you to possible ways to improve things. It just happens that people
who don't like a server are not very likely to make a link to it, so the
references above are almost invariably positive).
________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Francis Heylighen, Systems Researcher fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be
PESP, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32-2-6292525; Fax +32-2-6292489; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html