Problem, Reaction, Solution: Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops, “To Encourage Good Habits”

July 18th, 2011

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

I like to think
(right now please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

—Richard Brautigan, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”

The Wired piece below is the most hair-on-fire insane technofascist nonsense that I’ve encountered since Jesse Schell’s, Future Where Soda Cans Have Screens.

In short: It’s ALL your fault and the Machine will make you less bad. Step right up and behold the incredible healing properties of the feedback loop. Do it for your health. Do it for the children. Do it for the Earth.

Via: Wired:

The signs leverage what’s called a feedback loop, a profoundly effective tool for changing behavior. The basic premise is simple. Provide people with information about their actions in real time (or something close to it), then give them an opportunity to change those actions, pushing them toward better behaviors. Action, information, reaction. It’s the operating principle behind a home thermostat, which fires the furnace to maintain a specific temperature, or the consumption display in a Toyota Prius, which tends to turn drivers into so-called hypermilers trying to wring every last mile from the gas tank. But the simplicity of feedback loops is deceptive. They are in fact powerful tools that can help people change bad behavior patterns, even those that seem intractable. Just as important, they can be used to encourage good habits, turning progress itself into a reward. In other words, feedback loops change human behavior. And thanks to an explosion of new technology, the opportunity to put them into action in nearly every part of our lives is quickly becoming a reality.

The intransigence of human behavior has emerged as the root of most of the world’s biggest challenges. Witness the rise in obesity, the persistence of smoking, the soaring number of people who have one or more chronic diseases. Consider our problems with carbon emissions, where managing personal energy consumption could be the difference between a climate under control and one beyond help. And feedback loops aren’t just about solving problems. They could create opportunities. Feedback loops can improve how companies motivate and empower their employees, allowing workers to monitor their own productivity and set their own schedules. They could lead to lower consumption of precious resources and more productive use of what we do consume. They could allow people to set and achieve better-defined, more ambitious goals and curb destructive behaviors, replacing them with positive actions.

7 Responses to “Problem, Reaction, Solution: Harnessing the Power of Feedback Loops, “To Encourage Good Habits””

  1. apethought says:

    Considering the poem that begins this post, I assume you know the documentary by Adam Curtis of the same name, but to everyone who doesn’t know, go to YouTube and watch All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz2j3BhL47c.

    It’s an amazing three part series that traces the rise of objectivism and Ayn Rand’s cult of the individual through today’s notion that people are essentially meat robots who would benefit from integration with AI overlords.

  2. Miraculix says:

    The “Executive Editor” of a major media outlet as WIRED has never heard of the concept of a Panopticon?

    Or is he assuming that the bulk of of their under-slept, caffeine-addled tech junkie readership hasn’t?

    Better still, he reports that all the monitoring tech and live feedback loops to manage behavior modification are no longer just “vaporware”, but starting to emerge as real bleeding-edge systems.

    Best of all, he actually sells the whole scary mess as inevitable — and probably a good idea.

    That’s pretty intransigent behavior right there, if you ask me.

  3. Kevin says:

    @apethought

    Your assumption is correct, but, on balance, I had more of a negative assessment of the piece than positive, and I didn’t feel like taking the time to write it all out. So I just left it.

    It works as video art for me, but not much else.

  4. RBNZ says:

    I think the next step is to turn life into a game where you “level up” and get “medals” for paying your tax on time or possibly separating your recycling.

  5. Shikar says:

    Machines developed on top of a pathological society will still produce a more “efficient” pathology. The problem is not technology per se but the ignorance of the core reasons for our collective malaise. Any “developments” technological or otherwise are more displacements and bufferings and materialist detours. It’s a trans-humanist’s wet-dream of course…

  6. Dennis says:

    Posting from Bangkok, a place suggestive of the decades preceding ‘Bladerunner’.

    http://lyrics.wikia.com/Adam_Freeland:We_Want_Your_Soul

    Audio with trans-humanist/apocalyptic video mix (and spelling mistakes):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g04RKzYI3wQ&feature=related

  7. dagobaz says:

    I feel this urgent need to goose step happily along yelling: “Zieg Heil !!!” but the machine no capiche.

    I have rarely seen a more blunt assertion of hegelian dialectic presented as a positive choice; they have changed the mentality: submit, obey. Now we have: submit, room 101, obey. All covered in feel-good, hopey-changey, green smelling rhetoric, of course.

    I guess it is becoming more important than ever to know who is in your support group, and which of your friends you can count on.

    -cybele

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