Description
Book SynopsisWhen we want advice, we often casually speak of reaching out to others to get some feedback. But how many of us give a thought to what this phrase actually means? The idea of feedback actually dates to World War II, when the term was developed to describe the dynamics of self-regulating systems, which correct their actions by feeding their effects back into the system. For example, antiaircraft weapons systems could learn to predict how planes might try to evade them and adjust their firing patterns accordingly. By the early 1970s, feedback had evolved to become the governing trope for a counterculture that was reoriented and reinvigorated by ecological thinking. The Culture of Feedback digs deep into a dazzling variety of left-of-center experiences and attitudes from this misunderstood period, bringing us a new look at the wild side of the 1970s. Belgrad shows us how ideas from systems theory were taken up by the counterculture and the environmental movement, eventually influencing a