This morning while browsing the 'Shop I came across a reference to Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety, and a few minutes of research has loosened the top of my skull a bit. I have vaguely studied cybernetics off and on over the past decade, but somehow had not heard of Ashby. Now I need to re- and re--re- think some things, particularly in the context of WIlhoit's Law. And don't bother thinking that cybernetics haven't long been applied to politics. #cybernetics #AshbysLaw #WilhoitsLaw

Most fields have only a few laws.

I've been diving into #StaffordBeer over the past few days, #cybernetics guru of the 1970s-90s. His concepts of #AshbysLaw of #RequisiteVariety, and of #ViableSystemsModel get toward this. Notably, a model should be as simple as possible, but no simpler (Einstein).

An overly complex model invites #overfitting

Breakthroughs in domains occur where an accumulation of many complex rules can be discarded for a small set of simpler ones. Physics: Newton on gravity, motion, and optics. Chemistry: Mendeleev on chemical elements (valance electrons and atomic masses), Biology: Darwin and evolution (and genetics and DNA). Geology: Wegener and plate tectonics. Information; Shannon. Computer science: Turing & Church.

The social sciences have been approached repeatedly by their core truth but to date have rejected it.

11/