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What Ashby Says...

See also the following two web sites.

http://www.cybsoc.org/ross.htm
http://www.gwu.edu/~asc/biographies/ashby/quotations.html

W. Ross Ashby collected together a series of his own quotes, loosely based in Cybernetics themes, some of which he distributed to his students. This is the complete set taken from his card indexes in the Ashby Archive.

On Science

Science is the Observer's Digest. [wrasa169.tif]
The Cyberneticist observes what might have happened but did not. [wrasa001.tif]
A System is a set of variables sufficiently isolated to stay constant long enough for us to discuss it. [wrasa002.tif]
On Man
[wrasa170.tif]
Division of the world's system into Natural and Man-made died with Darwin. [wrasa003.tif]
Man is not the measure: first comes the measure, then we see where he falls; so far the result has always been humiliating. [wrasa004.tif]
Man pays for his knowledge with humiliation. [wrasa005.tif]
On Self Repair
[wrasa006.tif]
The fault cannot be in the part responsible for the repair. [wrasa006.tif]
On Creativity
[wrasa010.tif]
The scientist does not believe in events without causes, not even when they happen in the brain. [wrasa010.tif]
Introspection is the output of the verbalising mechanism. [wrasa013.tif]
On Evolution
[wrasa014.tif]
The brain is merely Nature's latest means of self-preservation. [wrasa171.tif]
The goals of a species, such as Homo, are what natural selection has driven it to. [wrasa015.tif]
On Goals
[wrasa047.tif]
The goals in evolution are what a spicies has been forced to. [wrasa047.tif]
On Essential Variables
[wrasa018.tif]
Poor M. Jourdain! He now has to understand that he has been behaving homeostatically all his life, when he thought he was merely minding his business. [wrasa018.tif]
On Psychology
[wrasa007.tif]
For two thousand years psychology was a simple description of Man's highest faculties--most of which he does not posses. [wrasa009.tif]
On Introspection
[wrasa084.tif]
That homo has a brain no more entitles him to assume he knows how he thinks than possession of a liver entitles him to assume that he knows how he metabolises. [wrasa084.tif]
A man no more knows how he thinks, just because he has a brain in his skull, than he knows how he makes blood, because he has marrow in his bones. [wrasa011.tif]
On The Brain
[wrasa019.tif]
The brain is natures latest and feroucious instrument of self preservation. [wrasa017.tif]
The brain has no brain inside to guide it. [wrasa016.tif]
Remember: The brain has no brain inside to guide it. [wrasa012.tif]
On Thinking
[wrasa024.tif]
To think is to act--inside the brain. [wrasa024.tif]
On the Brain as controller
[wrasa022.tif]
The brain controls nothing--it transmits. [wrasa022.tif]
On Organisation in the Brain
[wrasa023.tif]
The brain organizes nothing--it acts. [wrasa023.tif]
The brain has no gimmick, just five billion years of research and development. [wrasa172.tif]
The brain knows nothing of how it ought to act; it knows only what it does. [wrasa031.tif]
The test of a brain is its achievement of a goal. [wrasa020.tif]
Note for the sociologist: [wrasa025.tif]
The brain uses compulsion throughout. [wrasa025.tif]
On the "absolute" Brain
[wrasa041.tif]
Every brain is also an anti-brain. [wrasa041.tif]
On the "brain-like" mechanism
[wrasa043.tif]
No system is brain like - every system is brain like - as you please. [wrasa043.tif]
On Neurophysiology
[wrasa026.tif]
Natural selection has insists that neuronic details shall be irrelevant for whole behavior. [wrasa026.tif]
Natural selection insists that the nature of the parts shall be irrelevant for the behavior. [wrasa173.tif]
The neurone is the one unit that, in psychology, is quite devoid of interest, it is too small to be visible in the man's action, and too large to be sufficient in memory. [wrasa027.tif]
The neurone is the one unit that, in behaviour, is quite devoid of interest today; it is too small to be noticeable in a man's action, and too gross to carry a trace of memory. [wrasa174.tif]
No mammal will ever understand the mammalian brain completely. [wrasa029.tif]
The man who talks today of probability in the brain is usually trying to return to the days when everything in the brain was so delightfully vague. [wrasa028.tif]
On Learning
[wrasa046.tif]
On the unforseen
[wrasa050.tif]
No man knows what to do against the really new. [wrasa050.tif]
All wisdom is wisdom after the event. [wrasa051.tif]
When a machine breaks, it changes its mind. [wrasa049.tif]
Every system changes its mind by breaking. [wrasa175.tif]
The educated brain is the wreckage left after the experiences of training. [wrasa176.tif]
On Adult Adaptation
[wrasa048.tif]
The adult brain is the wreckage left by the experiences of childhood. [wrasa048.tif]
On Memory
[wrasa176.tif]
On the value of Experience
[wrasa042.tif]
Don't appoint, as the President's driver, an Englishman who has spent thirty years learning to drive on the left. [wrasa042.tif]
A system that stores its memories away from their site of action must do much work remembering where it put that memory. [wrasa177.tif]
On Intelligence
[wrasa030.tif]
Today, those who don't know what "intelligence" means must give way to those who do. [wrasa032.tif]
On the "brain like" control mechanism
[wrasa034.tif]
A mechanism is "brain-like" so far as it is effective: there is nothing more. [wrasa034.tif]
The only people who talk today of "real" intelligence are those who hope to find a meaning for the adjective later. [wrasa033.tif]
Intelligent is as intelligent does. [wrasa035.tif]
The drive to equilibrium forces the emergence of inteligence. [wrasa036.tif]
That the brain matches its environment is no more surprising than the matching of the two ends of a broken stick. [wrasa037.tif]
Change the environment to its opposite and every piece of wisdom becomes the worst of folly. [wrasa178.tif]
For every bump of the phrenologist there exists an environment that demands a depression. [wrasa039.tif]
Everyone is World Champion at some game (although some of the games have not yet been recognized). [wrasa045.tif]
An Intelligence Test measures the degree to which Tester and Subject think alike. [wrasa179.tif]
Is there a general intelligence? A universal weapon is as likely. [wrasa180.tif]
On Wisdom
[wrasa040.tif]
Every piece of wisdom is the worst folly in the opposite environment. [wrasa040.tif]
On IQ
[wrasa044.tif]
The test mesures only the degree to which Subject and Composer think alike. [wrasa044.tif]
On Logic
[wrasa181.tif]
A man can be a pure logician only if it makes him feel good. [wrasa158.tif]
Every skilled dramaticist understands the inexorable logic of the emotion. [wrasa182.tif]
On Artificial Intelligence
[wrasa068.tif]
He who would design a good brain must first know how to make a bad one. [wrasa072.tif]
Pattern-recognition is a throwing away of information. [wrasa071.tif]
Any device that can lose information can generalize. [wrasa070.tif]
On Deduction
[wrasa183.tif]
Deduction is the running-down of a determinate mechanism. [wrasa060.tif]
Newton arrived at F = ma after a part-random search; the apple arrived at the ground by pure deduction. [wrasa184.tif]
On Computers
[wrasa052.tif]
The general purpose computer is freer than the trained brain. [wrasa055.tif]
Whether a computer can be "really" inteligent is not a question for the philosophers: they know nothing about either computers or intelligence. [wrasa054.tif]
Today's digital computer is organized like an army of a million men that can only get two into action at a time. [wrasa056.tif]
Today's digital computer has a group velocity that is about a millionth of its wave velocity [wrasa058.tif]
On Organization
[wrasa064.tif]
It is an open question which has the richer organization: a living cow or a working silo. [wrasa065.tif]
Which biological organization proved more resistant to the Spaniards: the Aztecs of Mexico or the jungle of the Amazon? [wrasa066.tif]
Can a system be self-organizing? No system can permanently have the property that it changes properties. [wrasa185.tif]
On Requisite Variety
[wrasa073.tif]
Man adapts by conquering the reducible; the irreducible is impregnable. [wrasa186.tif]
We have broken into the Aladdin's cave of brain-like mechanisms; we find we can have anything we like--provided we pay for it! [wrasa073.tif]
On Localisation of Memory
[wrasa187.tif]
Any system that stores its memories away from the site of action must do much work in remembering where it has put that memory. [wrasa063.tif]
On "Genius"
[wrasa074.tif]
A magician is a man who does not show all that is significant. [wrasa074.tif]
Every prediction is an operation on the past [wener] [wrasa075.tif]
A "Genius" is a man who shows the public only the results of his labours. [wrasa076.tif]
On Things
[wrasa077.tif]
To be a thing is to behave in a certain way when explored with mechanical forces. [wrasa077.tif]
No man knows what to do against the purely new. [wrasa050.tif]
A long sequence of symbols each form a [wrasa053.tif]
No the self-organising system. [wrasa067.tif]
1 No locomotive can be self-pushing, 2 No cat can be self-washing, 3 No animal can be self-observing, 4 No man can be self-punishing, [wrasa067.tif]
On Intelligence
[wrasa083.tif]
Fro every faculty there is an environment that pessimises it. [wrasa083.tif]
We cannot read the book of God, only the observer's digest. [wrasa078.tif]
Random choice is an abrogated choice. [wrasa079.tif]
"Random" means "you do the choosing". [wrasa080.tif]
We show only the inteligence there is in the environment. [wrasa081.tif]
The computer can do more than the trained brain. [wrasa082.tif]
The rule for decision is: Use what you know to narrow the field as far as possible: after that, do as you please. [wrasa085.tif]
Any system that acheves appropriate selection (to a degree better than chance) does so as a consequence of information received. [wrasa087.tif]
On Evolution
[wrasa089.tif]
The species is fundamentally aimless (it finds its goals as it goes along). [wrasa089.tif]
On Generalisation
[wrasa091.tif]
To recognise a class is to throw away information [wrasa091.tif]
On"Brain-like" mechanisms
[wrasa092.tif]
Some say that a first requirement is that it shall weigh 45 ounces. [wrasa092.tif]
On adapting to a changing world
[wrasa093.tif]
No system adapts to the changing: it can adapt only to what is constant. [wrasa093.tif]
To speak of human behaviour, & then to speak of the neuron, is to show that one has not yet developed a sense of proportion. [wrasa094.tif]
Only the environment can design a brain. [wrasa095.tif]
On making an artificial brain
[wrasa096.tif]
Man's brain contains no blue print for brains against non-human environments. [wrasa096.tif]
On the brain's secret
[wrasa097.tif]
The secret of the mammalian brain is that it has long and slavishly fashioned itself to its environment. [wrasa097.tif]
To refer to the head-ganglion of Homo sapiens as "Man's brain" is to appeal to our lowest prejudices [wrasa098.tif]
Only the incorigibly sentimental speak of "Man's brain". Those who wish to stay clean - headed speak of the "head ganglion of Homo sapiens". [wrasa099.tif]
The liver is the brain of the inner world. Brain to the inner world is the liver. [wrasa100.tif]
On the ethics of a system
[wrasa101.tif]
A computer knows no ethics, only its set goal. [wrasa101.tif]
It is only within the memory of living men that psychology turned from studying how man ought to think, to how he does actually think [wrasa102.tif]
Any gibbon, as it throws itself on parabolic arcs from branch to brance, demonstrates its knowledge of Newtonian dynamics. [wrasa103.tif]
On Prediction
[wrasa104.tif]
What Homo knows at any moment, of the actual future is absolutely nothing [wrasa104.tif]
On Selection
[wrasa105.tif]
As every machine goes to equilibrium, it selects [wrasa105.tif]
Functionally, the behaviou is the brain. [wrasa106.tif]
On Altruism
[wrasa107.tif]
"Help one another" is the selfishness of the species. [wrasa107.tif]
"Logic" and "logical" are so degraded today that they convey no useful information. They are still used chiefly because they look well, either by the **** or by the unthinking [wrasa108.tif]
On Music
[wrasa109.tif]
Every dynamic system has its preferred modes of vibraiton, perhaps simple, perhams complex. [wrasa109.tif]
Rhapodise as you will, a law of nature is just a constant. [wrasa110.tif]
Instincts of Homo [wrasa110.tif]
This species is perculiar in that members make an ever-***** habit of attacking & exter*** weaker groups of their own species. [wrasa111.tif]
On the evolution of Homo sapiens
[wrasa112.tif]
For ninety nine hundredths of this time (before any traces of town dwelling) he inproved chiefly in his efficency in killing big game & other branches of his own species. [wrasa112.tif]
The specially human part of the brain has been evolved for the chase and for tribal warfare. The final evolution allowed armies of continental size to massacre on a continental scale. [wrasa113.tif]
Every one of the faculties boasted of by Man can become a humilating or fatal embarassment when the environment is not the usual type. [wrasa114.tif]
The man who speaks today of free will is merely a ***** confusiounist [wrasa115.tif]
The man who talks of free will in the 60's is trying to pump fog into a situation that he fears is clearing. [wrasa116.tif]
Man can remember only those things that nuatural selection has arranged that he should. [wrasa117.tif]
A concept is that which (which) survives, is stable under a sequence of operations [wrasa118.tif]
The brain takes information from where it is useless & moves it to where it is useful. [wrasa119.tif]
The heart is a mechanical pump - love lies else where; the brain is an information - processor. [wrasa120.tif]
When the brain is a covection channel it is as selfish as the heart is unfeeling, when it pumps. [wrasa121.tif]
In the 60's, to introduce the topic of is to introduce fog into a clearifying situation. [wrasa122.tif]
The application of quantitative methods to the brain will squeeze the remaining superstitions from our ideas about it. [wrasa123.tif]
The whole fuction of the brain is summed up in : error -correction [wrasa124.tif]
As God has to monitor his actions*, so must the brain monitor it. *And he saw the light that it was good. [wrasa125.tif]
On decision processes
[wrasa126.tif]
The brain decides nothing - it acts [wrasa126.tif]
of what use is the brain? - "To think with" is to reveal oneself as mediaeval and pre-Darwinian [wrasa127.tif]
On memory
[wrasa128.tif]
There is no memory in the present - only a state of affairs [wrasa128.tif]
On the mystery of the brain
[wrasa129.tif]
"But that", said Mr Hick contemptuously, "can't be the explanation - there's no myster in it." [wrasa129.tif]
On the laws of thought
[wrasa130.tif]
The machine that can produce all trajectories has no laws. [wrasa130.tif]
On the laws of thought
[wrasa131.tif]
The product set has no constraints [wrasa131.tif]
On Brain processes
[wrasa132.tif]
Life-processes (in species or brains) use only the additive methods - for the combinatorial there has not been time enough. [wrasa132.tif]
On adaptation
[wrasa133.tif]
In this universe, the life-time of a planet is only sufficient to allow its evolved life-form to explore the possibilities of additive adaptation [wrasa133.tif]
On adaptation as a whole to a whole
[wrasa134.tif]
All our adaptations are collections of nearly independent bits; life is too short to alow us to explore the really holistic. [wrasa134.tif]
On Man's God-like intelligence
[wrasa135.tif]
Intelligence is a specialisation to the environment that is (?) complexly / aggregately. [wrasa135.tif]
On Man's God-like intelligence
[wrasa136.tif]
An organism should be as intelligent as its environment, - no more, no less. [wrasa136.tif]
Every mechanism generates improbabilities (Not only natural selection) [wrasa137.tif]
The M.S. [wrasa138.tif]
Amoung systems in a net, the struggle for existence is inevitable [wrasa138.tif]
The law of the brain is : What will be, will be. [wrasa139.tif]
On long-term planning in the brain
[wrasa140.tif]
On Man's ability to plan
[wrasa140.tif]
The brain is wholly opportunist, no less when it proposes a long term plan. [wrasa140.tif]
On Progress in adaptation
[wrasa141.tif]
A brain can improve till it fits ints environment: [wrasa141.tif]
On Organisation
[wrasa142.tif]
Organisation exists mostly in the eye of the beholder. [wrasa142.tif]
On Memory
[wrasa143.tif]
The brain knows only the present and what it can construct from the present. [wrasa143.tif]
Slogan [wrasa144.tif]
Man lives by surviving. [wrasa144.tif]
Which showed the best power of survival when attacked by the Spaniards: that bio-organisation calle the amazon jungle: or that bio-organisation called the Aztecs? [wrasa146.tif]
Which out-fought the Spaniards - the Aztec civil organisation, or that bio-organisation called the Amazon Jungle ? [wrasa147.tif]
The digital computer of today is like a centipede with a million legs, each of which can go forward in a microsecond; but as it can move only on e pair at a time the whole animal is easily outrun by the tortoise [wrasa148.tif]
When we take the ordiantes of a wave function and use them to compute their exact values a moment later, we are (1) demonstrating that the science of quantum physics use determinant systems. (2) treating the system as determinate. [wrasa150.tif]
Every operation seeks the state that makes it impotent. [wrasa151.tif]
A "machine" is a shadow of simple succession. [wrasa152.tif]
"The time it takes increases exponentially" is a mathematical way of saying it can't be done. [wrasa153.tif]
On Evolution
[wrasa154.tif]
By the time sexual reproduction has been achieved, the main difficulty of evolution is past. [wrasa154.tif]
On Sympathy
[wrasa155.tif]
If my sympathy with another's sufferings proves the reality of the other's feelings then the pattern of light & shade that I call a "weeping heroine" on the cinema screen is genuinely feeling. [wrasa155.tif]
On In****strospection
[wrasa156.tif]
A man can report what happens in his brain only so far as the events reach the verbalising center. [wrasa156.tif]
Every dramatist knows the inexonable logic of the emotions. [wrasa157.tif]
Disorder never proceeds to order so milk can never separate into buttermilk and cream. [wrasa159.tif]
On the subjective
[wrasa160.tif]
How to lest whether you're dreaming - kick the fellow in front of you and see who feels the pain. [wrasa160.tif]
I am; therefore I think. [wrasa161.tif]
On error controlled servo
[wrasa162.tif]
The error controlled servo - mechanism is a brain without eyes. [wrasa162.tif]
Whatever vibrates is a musical instrument: whatever is stable is a mechanical brain - the difficulty lies in making a particular one. [wrasa163.tif]
Is your life achieving the full potentialities of carbon ? [wrasa164.tif]

What Ashby Says...

On Science

On Man

On Self Repair

On Creativity

On Evolution

On Goals

On Essential Variables

On Psychology

On Introspection

On The Brain

On Thinking

On the Brain as controller

On Organisation in the Brain

On the "absolute" Brain

On the "brain-like" mechanism

On Neurophysiology

On Learning

On the unforseen

On Adult Adaptation

On Memory

On the value of Experience

On Intelligence

On the "brain like" control mechanism

On Wisdom

On IQ

On Logic

On Artificial Intelligence

On Deduction

On Computers

On Organization

On Requisite Variety

On Localisation of Memory

On "Genius"

On Things

On Intelligence

On Evolution

On Generalisation

On"Brain-like" mechanisms

On adapting to a changing world

On making an artificial brain

On the brain's secret

On the ethics of a system

On Prediction

On Selection

On Altruism

On Music

On the evolution of Homo sapiens

On decision processes

On memory

On the mystery of the brain

On the laws of thought

On the laws of thought

On Brain processes

On adaptation

On adaptation as a whole to a whole

On Man's God-like intelligence

On Man's God-like intelligence

On long-term planning in the brain

On Man's ability to plan

On Progress in adaptation

On Organisation

On Memory

On Evolution

On Sympathy

On In****strospection

On the subjective

On error controlled servo