“I think that cybernetics is the biggest bite out of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that mankind has taken in the last 2000 years. But most such bites out of the apple have proven to be rather indigestible – usually for cybernetic reasons.” — Gregory Bateson.
“From Versailles to Cybernetics”, 1966. In Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology. University of Chicago Press, 1972.
This quote inspired Steve Jobs to come up with the Apple Logo.
Gregory Bateson, an English anthropologist, was probably one of the most important thinkers of the last century, and much of what he wrote about is critically relevant for how we think about dealing with the major problems we face as a species. His main concern was for us to change the way we think; what he described as a 'cybernetic epistemology' in effect is challenge for us to not only think about systems and complexity but to think systemically.
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