New member: Burl Grey

Cliff Joslyn (cjoslyn@BINGSUNS.CC.BINGHAMTON.EDU)
Sat, 13 Jan 1996 02:23:15 -0500


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Date: Mon, 25 Dec 95 16:52:16 -0800
From: burlgrey <burlgrey@ix11.ix.netcom.com>
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Please consider my application attached.

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Hello,

I would like to subscribe to PRNCYB-L.

Burl Grey

email: burlgrey@ix.netcom.com

7121 SW 63 Ave.
Miami, FL 33143

Ph. 305-669-6846 Fx.305-669-6875

Affiliation: Member of The American Society for Cybernetics since 1985.

My work:

[1] At the most general level I am concerned with what Lee Thayer has
called WIMTH [what-it-means-to-be-human p.113 the Relevance of General
System Theory 1972]

[2] My slightly less general position is similar to Heinz Von Foersters'
comment in the last paragraph of OBSERVING SYSTEMS 1984 -the second
edition- preface; "... On constructing a Reality... I had made common
cause with those who prefer to see realities being invented, rather than
discovered...."

[3] In June of 1986 I attended the Gordon Conference on "The Cybernetics
of Cognition". There, I found profound epistemologic problems related to
the 'role' of language and individual identity maintainence. I believe Memetics
is a useful schema for examining the reciprocal 'play' between emotional states
and representations.
In October 1992 at Seabeck Washington in Maturana's workbook p.59 he
asserts: "...We human beings exist in language..." and in a personal
communication; 1986 :... all reality arises in language...".
If I knew more about you... how you are reading/evaluating this, I could
perhaps offer better examples to meet your criteria.

[4] In '93 and'94 I explored the Think Tanks in Washington DC where I
reluctantly reinforced my worst fears; e.g. I attended Patrick Michaels
book intro (The sound and the fury- 'The Politics of Global Warming') at
the Cato Institute and observed 30+ affluent/educated/bright people with
a single goal- to kill Al Gores book 'Earth in the Balance'. at any cost! etc...
I would characterize the group as a kind of 'group think'. However in the 'wake'
I met another dissenter who was unwilling to be identified by the group as a
target which suggests there may have been several others remaining silent.

[5] While in DC I attended a conference at George Mason called "Mind,
Brain and Complex Adaptive Systems" where I met John Holland, Daniel Dennett
etc... I also attended a Conference by The Carrying Capacity Network where I met
Garrett Hardin.. (Tragedy of the Commons)

I have tried to indicate above some of the ideas, events and individuals
which I have explored as a shorthand for you to evaluate/understand me. In 1972
read Gregory Bateson's 'Steps...' which became a turning point for my
understndings. While at a weekend meeting with Bateson when he was at Esalon, I
asked him with whom he corresponded the most and he, instantly, said Roy
Rappaport. I was pleased because I had read Rappaport's 'Ecology, Meaning and
Religion' and was especially taken with his chapter on 'Adaptive Structure and
its Disorders' p.145.

I recognize five individuals on your PRNCYB-L list. I have met them at one
conference or another. I feel a great sense of excitement about participating
with such an accomplished group.
A principle problem I worry about is how 'we' will regulate the
quantity/quality of input so that the system, as a system, can become
increasingly relevant to what some are calling the Global Brain. The truly
difficult questions about evolution which Kauffman addresses in his "Origins of
Order" may be less difficult than problems of VALUE at all levels-e.g. Who
decides what and by what criteria, to put it still differently, the putative
goals will probably become redefined as a product of the initial participants
who themselves will be evolving. A truly daunting, complex and unpredictable
process.
I am working steadily on the above questions and hope to have a more
coherent and appropriate essay in the next few months.

with trepidations and love,
burl Grey

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