Thursday, August 05, 2021

Westinghouse ATF makes progress towards approval

04 August 2021


Irradiated lead test rods containing Westinghouse's EnCore advanced fuel technology have arrived at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where they will undergo a year of testing to support regulatory licensing efforts. The fuel is being developed under the DOE's Accident Tolerant Fuel Program, an industry-led effort looking to commercialise new fuels within the decade.

ORNL took delivery of the irradiated ATF in June (Image: ORNL)

The rods were loaded into a commercial US nuclear reactor in the spring of 2019 and removed after completing their operating cycle during a scheduled outage in the autumn of 2020. They were shipped by to ORNL by NAC International in June, the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy said yesterday.

ORNL will carry out post-irradiation experiments on the fuel to help qualify it with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. No signs of degradation have been seen in the fuel during initial visual observations after it was removed from the reactor.

Accident tolerant fuels - or ATFs - not only enhance the tolerance of light-water reactor fuel under severe accident conditions but also offer improvements to reactor performance and economics.

The fuel rods were fitted with Westinghouse's near-term EnCore Fuel solutions of chromium-coated zirconium alloy cladding and ADOPT higher-density uranium fuel pellets, which improve fuel cycle economics, enable longer operating cycles and enhance accident tolerance. ADOPT fuel and chromium cladding also support higher burnup and 24-month cycle operation for high-power density plants, the company said. A second, longer-term, phase solution using uranium nitride pellets and advanced silicon carbide-based cladding is also in development.

Jeff Bradfute, Westinghouse vice president of Americas Fuel Delivery, said the shipment shows the "substantial progress" EnCore Fuel is making towards commercialisation. "The examination of these high-performance features is the latest milestone our strategic timeline to enable utilities to quickly gain the safety and cost benefits that EnCore Fuel will provide," he said.

Westinghouse is making "incredible strides" in the development of its ATFs, Frank Goldner, a nuclear engineer at DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, said. "These fuels will have a tangible impact on the industry once deployed in the near-term and could help make our US fleet more economical to operate," he added.

Three vendors - Framatome, GE Hitachi with GNF, and Westinghouse - are working with the DOE to develop new fuels under the ATF programme. All are on track to have their accident tolerant fuels ready for batch loading by the mid-2020s and commercially available with widespread adoption by 2030, DOE said.


Jordan declares uranium plant 'fully operational'

27 July 2021

Jordan has been operating a "pioneering" processing plant to recover yellowcake from uranium ores since the start of the year, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Commission has announced. Khaled Toukan's remarks were reported by state news agency Petra and shared by the Jordanian Uranium Mining Company (JUMCO), operator of the plant. JUMCO, which is the commercial arm of Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission, was established in 2013 to carry out radioactive elements exploration and development in Jordan.


JUMCO said its uranium processing plant is fully operational (Image: JUMCO/Petra)

JUMCO General Manager Mohammad Shunnaq said the company had, over the past year, "undertaken the design and installation of a factory for the production of yellow cake". Operation of the pilot plant has processed 70 tonnes of "ore", he said.

In addition to the uranium exploration, Jordan's nuclear program includes the Jordan Research and Training Reactor which became operational in 2016, and the Nuclear Power Plant Project to produce electricity and desalinate seawater, which is currently ongoing.

According to World Nuclear Association, Jordan imports most of its energy and seeks greater energy security as well as lower electricity prices. The country has significant uranium resources, some in phosphorite deposits, and is considering the use of small modular reactors. Jordan has signed nuclear cooperation agreements with France, Canada, the UK and Russia in respect to both power and desalination, and is developing its plans in line with International Atomic Energy Agency recommendations. It has also signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with China, covering uranium mining in Jordan and nuclear power, and others with South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Romania, Turkey and Argentina related to infrastructure including nuclear power and desalination.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

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Canadian firm enters US uranium sector with mine purchases

16 July 2021

Vancouver-based International Consolidated Uranium (CUR) has agreed to buy the Tony M, Daneros and Rim conventional uranium mines in Utah, as well as the Sage Plain property and eight Department of Energy leases in Colorado from Energy Fuels Inc. In addition, the companies have agreed to enter into toll-milling and operating agreements with respect to the projects. The transaction positions CUR as a potential near-term US uranium producer.

The mines purchased by CUR from Energy Fuels (Image: CUR)

Under a definitive asset purchase agreement announced yesterday, CUR will pay Energy Fuels USD2 million at the closing of the transaction, CAD6 million (USD4.8 million) of deferred cash payable over time, up to CAD5 million of deferred cash payable on commencement of commercial production, and such number of CUR shares that results in Energy Fuels holding 19.9% of the outstanding CUR common shares immediately after closing. CUR will also pay Energy Fuels a management fee, along with a toll milling fee for ore produced at the acquired projects in the future.

The portfolio of projects being acquired by CUR includes, among other assets, three permitted, past-producing mines in Utah: Tony M, Daneros and Rim.

The Tony M mine in southeastern Utah is a large-scale, fully-developed and permitted underground mine. Located about 127 road miles west of Energy Fuels' White Mesa Mill, the mine was operated by Denison from September 2007 to November 2008, when it was placed on care and maintenance. In June 2012, Energy Fuels acquired all of Denison's uranium properties in the USA.

The Daneros mine - located about 70 miles west of the White Mesa Mill - is a fully-developed and permitted underground mine. It operated from 2009 until October 2012 when the mine was placed on standby by Denison.

The Rim mine is a permitted, formerly producing mine located approximately 62 road miles from the White Mesa Mill. The mine has operated historically on a periodic basis starting in the mid-1960s. Mining last occurred in early 2008 by Denison and ceased in late 2010. Energy Fuels acquired the property in 2012 and has maintained it on care and maintenance since that time.

The transaction also includes CIR's acquisition of the Sage Plain property in Utah and eight Department of Energy (DOE) leases in Colorado. The project area - some 54 road miles from the White Mesa Mill - is at the location of the historic Calliham mine. The DOE leases are located in the historically productive Uravan Mineral Belt in Colorado. The leases are located 80-175 road miles from the White Mesa Mill. New 10-year leases for these lease tracts were executed by Energy Fuels in January 2020.
Strategic alliance

CUR and Energy Fuels have also entered a strategic alliance for the projects, which involves three key components: a toll-milling agreement, operating agreements and an investor rights agreement.

Under the toll-milling, Energy Fuels will toll-mill ore mined from the projects at the White Mesa Mill, subject to payment by CUR of a toll-milling fee and certain other terms and conditions. With this agreement, CUR will become the only current US uranium developer - other than Energy Fuels itself - with guaranteed access to the White Mesa Mill, which is the only permitted and operating conventional uranium mill in the USA.

Through the operating agreements, Energy Fuels will provide ongoing services for a fee to maintain the projects in good standing, as well as additional services as agreed to by the parties.

Under the investor rights agreement, for so long as Energy Fuels' equity ownership in CUR remains at or above 10%, it will be entitled to equity participation rights to maintain its pro rata equity ownership in CUR and to appoint one nominee to the CUR Board of Directors.

Growth strategies

"Our strategy has been to acquire uranium projects around the world, create critical mass, and target the acquisition of larger, more advanced projects," said CUR President and CEO Philip Williams. "While the recently announced acquisition of the high-grade Matoush Project in Quebec was a big step forward for CUR, today's acquisition and alliance with Energy Fuels represents a giant leap. In one transaction, we are entering the important US uranium sector by acquiring past producing mines which are permitted and well positioned for a rapid restart when market conditions are right."

CUR has acquired a 100% interest or has entered into option agreements to acquire a 100% interest in seven uranium projects, in Australia, Canada and Argentina, each with significant past expenditures and attractive characteristics for development.

Energy Fuels holds three of the USA's key uranium production centres: the White Mesa Mill in Utah, the Nichols Ranch ISR Project in Wyoming and the Alta Mesa ISR Project in Texas. The White Mesa Mill is the only conventional uranium mill operating in the USA today, has a licensed capacity of over 8 million pounds of U3O8 per year and has the ability to produce vanadium when market conditions warrant.

"The assets we are selling to CUR are proven US uranium mines, and in fact production from these mines since 2006 has accounted for over 1,050,000 lbs of US uranium production, which would rank those mines as fifth among all current uranium producers in the US over those years," said Energy Fuels President and CEO Mark Chalmers.

"However, because Energy Fuels is focusing its attention on its core projects - the Nichols Ranch and Alta Mesa ISR properties and the Pinyon Plain, La Sal and other conventional properties - we do not believe markets have properly valued the projects within our expansive portfolio of exceptional assets," he added. "We believe that, in order to realise the full value of our expansive portfolio, certain assets, such as the projects, can be repositioned to the benefit of Energy Fuels and its shareholders, provided we find the right vehicle to unlock the value of these assets. In this transaction, we believe we have found that vehicle in CUR."


Transformative muon technology deployed at McClean Lake

07 July 2021

The world's first cosmic-ray muon detector developed specifically for use in industry-standard boreholes, has been deployed at Orano's McClean Lake site in northern Saskatchewan where it will be used to image a uranium deposit. The technology developed by Canadian start-up company Ideon Technologies could transform mineral exploration

Orano Canada Exploration Technical Director Rémy Chemillac with the borehole muon detector (Image: Ideon)

Muon tomography uses muons - naturally occurring subatomic particles created when cosmic rays enter Earth's upper atmosphere - to provide x-ray-like imaging up to 1 km beneath the Earth's surface. This means that new mineral and metal deposits can be identified with precision and confidence, with less need for drilling, reducing costs and risks, saving time and minimising environmental impact.

Ideon - a spin-off of Canada's TRIUMF national particle accelerator laboratory - has developed a discovery platform which integrates proprietary muon detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to produce high-resolution 3D density maps of underground targets. The company has been working with Orano since 2016, when its first-generation large format detectors were used to image a high-grade uranium deposit under 600 m of sandstone at the McArthur River mine.

A miniaturisation effort has led to the development of the first industry-standard borehole (less than 10 cm in diameter), low-power (less than 10W continuous power consumption), zero-maintenance muon tomography detector suitable for operation in the extreme environmental conditions of mineral exploration sites around the world. Its deployment is a milestone that has taken more than a decade to reach, Ideon CEO Gary Agnew said.


Deploying the detector in the borehole (Image: Ideon)

"We've spent seven years doing commercial trials in partnership with the mining industry and several years of system design and development, de-risking and prototyping in the lab," he said. "Orano has been there right along with us for much of that journey, leading the way as a customer-driven innovator in the global energy transition. We are grateful for their enthusiasm, flexibility, trust, and willingness to break new ground with us."

Hervé Toubon, R&D and innovation director at Orano Mining, said the company expects the project to "transform the very nature" of exploration. It is "virtually impossible" to detect high-grade deposits at depth using traditional geophysical exploration techniques, he said. "The subsurface intelligence we gain with muon tomography gives us the ability to accurately locate those anomalies while reducing the need for drilling and lowering our overall environmental impact. That value proposition is hard to beat."

Orano's imaging target is a high-grade, compact uranium deposit located at a depth of 300 m. Multiple borehole muon detectors are deployed down a single drill hole in a connected sequence, delivering progressive imaging results throughout the survey. The McClean Lake project, which is approved by the Eureka intergovernmental R&D funding and coordination organisation, is receiving advisory services and funding support from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program and will run until the end of 2021.

In addition to muon tomography models, Ideon said it will also work with Orano to develop joint inversions with existing drill data and other geophysical datasets.

Muon detection systems have also been used to investigate passively the contents of legacy waste containers at Sellafield in the UK and to investigate the location of molten fuel within the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.

Cigar Lake to resume operation as wildfire risk passes

05 July 2021

Workers are returning to the Cigar Lake uranium mine in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, ahead of its planned restart later this week, Cameco has announced. All non-essential personnel were evacuated last week from the site as a precaution due to the proximity of a nearby wildfire
.
Cigar Lake (Image: Cameco)

Cameco announced on 1 July that it had decided to evacuate about 230 workers from the Cigar Lake site. Around 80 personnel remained to secure the site and for essential duties. At that time, the company said: "The situation is complicated by extremely warm, dry weather, resulting from the heat dome that has settled over western Canada in recent days, along with variable wind and smoke conditions."

On 2 July, Cameco said the wildfire had moved past the main camp area without serious impact to the site itself. "While our inspections continue, we believe no structural damage has occurred to any buildings and all assets appear intact," it said.

Yesterday it announced, in consultation with provincial wildfire management officials from the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency, it believed the risk to Cigar Lake posed by the fire had now subsided.

"With improved weather and smoke conditions, minimal likelihood of further road closures in the area, and all infrastructure at Cigar Lake remaining intact, Cameco believes the full complement of personnel can be safely remobilised and regular operations resumed," it said.

Cameco is now in the process of transporting employees and contractors back to the Cigar Lake site. Final inspections and preparation of equipment will occur over the days ahead to ready the operation for a return to production.

Cigar Lake is the world's highest grade uranium mine and has produced a total of over 93 million pounds U3O8 since it was commissioned in 2014. Ore from Cigar Lake is processed at the McClean Lake mill, 70 kilometres from the mine, which is operated by Orano. Uranium production at Cigar Lake was suspended due to restrictions created by the COVID-19 pandemic for five months from March 2020, and for a second time in December, resuming in April.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News
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Federal Health Minister warns Alberta counterpart over risks of ending COVID restrictions too early
JAMES KELLER
CALGARY
PUBLISHED AUGUST 4, 2021

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health, defended the province’s decision to end routine COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation in an op-ed released to media outlets on Wednesday.
JASON FRANSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu has written her counterpart in Alberta to warn that the decision to end routine COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and mandatory isolation at a time of increased transmission could put children at risk, as she urged the province not to declare victory over the virus too early.

In a letter to Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro, Ms. Hajdu wrote that the rapid spread of the Delta variant calls for more caution, not less – and asked him to explain the evidence and rationale behind the province’s changes, which were announced last week.

“Although this decision falls squarely within your jurisdiction, experts from Alberta and around the country are voicing their significant concerns,” she said in the letter, which was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

“I echo the Canadian Paediatric Society, who has called on you to recognize that this ‘unnecessary and risky gamble’ could worsen the spread of the virus and put children at risk.”

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Deena Hinshaw, announced that the province would no longer legally require people who test positive for COVID-19 to isolate beginning on Aug. 16. As well, routine testing will no longer be offered for most people and contact tracers won’t notify people who may have been exposed to the virus, except in cases that involve high-risk settings such as long-term care facilities.

The changes have been widely criticized by public-health experts and prompted several protests in the province. The Opposition New Democrats called on the government to reverse course. The Canadian Paediatric Society said Alberta’s approach is particularly dangerous for children under 12, who aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated.





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Ms. Hajdu noted in her letter that recent federal modelling projected a sharp increase in infections in Alberta, as well as in other provinces.

“We have seen in previous waves that public-health measures, including isolation and quarantine, are very important and effective tools for controlling resurgence. Indeed, these measures have saved lives,” she writes.

Mr. Shandro and Premier Jason Kenney have defended the changes, which they said were proposed by Dr. Hinshaw and driven by data. Mr. Kenney has brushed aside criticism by suggesting those who are calling for continued restrictions are doubting the effectiveness of vaccines and are needlessly sowing fear.

Brett Boyden, a spokesman for Alberta’s Health Minister, said Dr. Hinshaw “has been very clear on the sound medical reasoning behind her decisions” and added that Dr. Hinshaw talks regularly with with her federal counterparts.

Dr. Hinshaw released an op-ed to media outlets on Wednesday in which she apologized for causing “confusion, fear or anger,” but also defended the province’s shift. She said the changes are about learning to live with COVID-19, and argued that the province cannot sustain treating the pandemic as a continuing emergency in which every cough or runny nose requires a medical test and long periods of isolation.

“As vaccine coverage has changed the nature of the province-wide risk of COVID-19, it is time, in my opinion, to shift from province-wide extraordinary measures to more targeted and local measures,” she wrote.

Dr. Hinshaw also addressed the concerns about unvaccinated children. She argued the risk to young children is too low to justify the mental-health effects and other harms caused by public-health measures such as isolation.

“This doesn’t mean we should ignore the risk to kids from any of these things, but I believe it means we should consider COVID risk in context of all other risks that we face,” wrote Dr. Hinshaw, who added that she has two children of her own who are under 12.

Alberta had by far the highest per-capita rates of COVID-19 infections in Canada during the second and third waves, including a period in May when the province had the highest rates of new infections anywhere in North America. Alberta also led the country for hospital and ICU admissions late last year.

The province has seen an increase in infections in recent weeks, with daily cases more than doubling in the past week alone, and it now has among the highest infection rates in Canada. Dr. Hinshaw has urged the public to pay less attention to infection numbers, which she said no longer predict hospital admissions and deaths.

Alberta also has among the lowest vaccination rates in the country. About 76 per cent of eligible people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which is the second-lowest rate in the country, ahead of Saskatchewan. The province is also lagging behind the national rate for second doses, with 66 per cent of people fully immunized.

Wednesday's letters:
 Is Hinshaw to be the fall person?
Author of the article:Edmonton Journal
Publishing date:Aug 04, 2021 • 
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health, gives a COVID-19 pandemic update from the media room at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton, on Wednesday, July 28, 2021. PHOTO BY IAN KUCERAK /Postmedia

On July 28, I watched Dr. Hinshaw approach the podium for her news conference and do her usual hand sanitization, remove her mask and sanitize her hands a second time. Her announcement was a surprise. We will be treating the COVID-19 virus the same as colds, influenza and other seasonal diseases. No more mandatory testing. Testing will be done only in doctors’ offices and hospitals. Premier Kenney and Health Minister Shandro were not at this news conference.

Our provincial government has absolved itself of its responsibility for safety of the population. No contact tracing, no mandatory quarantine for positive cases and no masks required. Our under-12 population is completely unprotected as vaccines are not yet available for them.

Why do I have the feeling Dr. Hinshaw has been set up as the fall person for this gamble? Minister Shandro spoke to this announcement later by saying that the lifting of restrictions was at the direction of Dr. Hinshaw. Minister Shandro did not say “the government in consultation with Dr. Hinshaw,” which would indicate a team approach and shared responsibility. What does Dr. Hinshaw really think? She continues to wear a mask and use hand sanitizer. This government is not known to treat their employees with respect as we well know.

Phyllis Stone, Sherwood Park


New COVID approach unbelievable

This virus is now twice as contagious as smallpox and Deena Hinshaw is about to play Russian roulette with Albertans. I watched Dr. Hinshaw announce the new COVID restrictions and I was in complete disbelief as to what she suggested. Alberta would be the one and only place in the world to make such drastic changes in guidelines.

For 16 months she professed her sadness with lives lost and shared how serious it was and now it’s a free-for-all, who-cares attitude. She needs to step down as she does not represent nor care for Albertans any longer and she needs to take Jason Kenney with her as he doesn’t care either.

J.T. Syrnyk, Edmonton


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Investors call for urgent action by steelmakers on carbon emissions
Simon Jessop


A protester from the Climate Coalition demonstrates, with 100 hundred days to go before the start of the COP26 climate summit, in Parliament Square, London, Britain, July 23, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

Summary

IIGCC issues priority actions for steelmakers

Calls for short-term targets in line with IEA report

Also says need to demonstrate emerging technology works

LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Steelmakers need to take urgent action on producing less carbon in order to meet the Paris Agreement on climate change, investors managing $55 trillion in assets said on Wednesday.

Emissions from steel production account for 9% of the global total and must fall 29% by 2030 and 91% by 2050 to meet the net zero scenario laid out by the International Energy Agency in May, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change said.

The IIGCC, as part of the Climate Action 100+ initiative, said in a statement that while it was technically feasible to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century, the steel industry was being too slow to act.

Steel firms needed to set short, mid and long-term targets in line with the IEA report, and align their capital expenditure plans with net zero, including not investing in new, unabated production capacity, the IIGCC added.

They also needed to demonstrate that emerging technology can work and produce reports by the end of 2022 on how carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen-based processes can be used.

In addition, they needed to be transparent about the public policy positions they will take to accelerate their transition, for example on carbon pricing and research and development.

While nine companies responsible for around 20% of global steel production have so far set firm net zero emissions commitments, they are mainly in Europe and Asia, and are largely in line with national net zero pledges and existing regulation.

"We cannot afford to delay action – while emerging technology has a role to play, the IEA’s report highlights that existing technology can deliver 85% of the emissions reductions needed by 2030," IIGCC Chief Executive Stephanie Pfeifer said.

ArcelorMittal (MT.LU), the world's top steelmaker, and German peer Salzgitter (SZGG.DE) earlier this year announced hydrogen-based projects to help lower their emissions.

In Japan, meanwhile, the country's third-biggest steelmaker, Kobe Steel (5406.T), said it plans to cut emissions by 30%-40% by 2030 from 2013 levels. read more
Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Alexander Smith
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WATER IS LIFE
Environmental impact of bottled water ‘up to 3,500 times greater than tap water’

Researchers also find impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than that of tap water

Joey Grostern
Thu 5 Aug 2021 10.30 BST

The impact of bottled water on natural resources is 3,500 times higher than for tap water, scientists have found.

The research is the first of its kind and examined the impact of bottled water in Barcelona, where it is becoming increasingly popular despite improvements to the quality of tap water in recent years.

Research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) found that if the city’s population were all to drink bottled water, this would result in a 3,500 times higher cost of resource extraction than if they all drank tap water, at $83.9m (£60.3m)a year.

Researchers also found the impact of bottled water on ecosystems is 1,400 times higher than tap water.Do you drink bottled water? Read this | Adrienne Matei

The authors concluded that the reduction in environmental impacts more than offset the small risk of bladder cancer associated with drinking tap water. The process of treating drinking water generates low levels of trihalomethanes (THM), which have been associated with a higher risk of bladder cancer. THM levels in drinking water are regulated in the EU.

The lead author of the study, the ISGlobal researcher Cristina Villanueva, said: “Health reasons don’t justify the wide use of bottled water. Yes, strictly speaking, drinking tap water is worse for local health, but when you weigh both, what you gain from drinking bottled water is minimal. It’s quite obvious that the environmental impacts of bottled water are higher compared to tap water.”

In the US, 17m barrels of oil are needed to produce the plastic to meet annual bottled water demand. In addition, bottled water in the UK is at least 500 times more expensive than tap water.

Villanueva added: “I think this study can help to reduce bottled water consumption, but we need more active policies to change that.

“For example, in Barcelona, we could have more education campaigns to make the public aware that the health gains from drinking bottled water are minor compared to the environmental impacts. We need to improve access to public water, to public fountains, to public buildings where you can bring your own bottle and don’t need to buy one. We need to facilitate access to public water in public streets.

“People trust bottled water because advertisers have done a good job of convincing people it’s a good option, so we need the effort on the other side.”
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RIGHT WING SLAP BACK 

Parts of controversial

 Alberta UCP labour

 law remain in limbo

WHEN IN DOUBT ATTACK THE UNIONS

Two independent MLAs slammed the government for leaving law unproclaimed


Janet French · CBC News · 
Independent MLAs Drew Barnes (left) and Todd Loewen (right) held a news conference Aug. 4, 2021, to criticize the UCP government for failing to proclaim sections of an omnibus labour bill passed in 2020. Once enacted, the new law would force union members to opt into donating any dues to political causes, charity fundraisers and some other functions. (Janet French/CBC)

A new law that requires workers to opt into paying union dues to political campaigns or charity donations remains inactive more than a year after legislators approved it.

Two independent MLAs who were removed from the government caucus earlier this year drew attention to the issue on Wednesday, alleging the delay is allowing unions to influence elections scheduled for October.

Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes said the United Conservative Party government's delays could see union members' dues flowing to third-party advertiser campaigns for city council or school board candidates they oppose.

"As broken promises go, this is a big one," Barnes said at a news conference. "For far too long, union members have been forced to fund political spending for candidates and causes they personally disagree with, or even oppose."

Central Peace-Notley MLA Todd Loewen said he worries union-funded campaigns will influence a referendum on whether Albertans support the principle of equalization. That question, along with a referendum on daylight saving time and senator elections are all on the municipal election ballot set for Oct. 18.

The pair's public criticism of the premier's leadership and some of his policies prompted caucus colleagues to expel them in May.

Loewen said the low popularity of Premier Jason Kenney combined with political campaigns could prompt people to reject the equalization question, which he said would be "devastating" for the province.

Labour groups and corporations are banned from making donations directly to civic or provincial candidates in Alberta.

However, they can register as a third-party political advertiser, or donate to a political action committee. Before those donations were banned, Alberta unions did endorse and donate to some civic candidates.

As of Wednesday, the only third-party advertiser registered with Elections Alberta with an obvious tie to a referendum campaign was the Society of Albertans Against Equalization.

Canadian Taxpayers' Federation Alberta director Kevin Lacey said federation staff started the society.

The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees said in a statement the union has no advertising plans for the civic election or referendum.

The Alberta Federation of Labour did not answer questions about any campaign plans for the October votes.

Alberta Labour and Immigration Minister Jason Copping has put forward substantial employment changes since he was appointed to the post in 2019. (Government of Alberta)

Joseph Dow, press secretary to Labour and Immigration Minister Jason Copping, said the government will keep its election promise to make union dues optional for political causes. The government is consulting on and writing companion regulations, he said.

Dow did not give a date for the rules to take effect.

Law likely to face legal challenge

Bill 32, the Restoring Balance in Alberta's Workplaces Act, was a contentious, omnibus slate of changes to laws affecting workers.

The portions already in effect put new limits on where union members can picket, allow 13- and 14-year-olds to work in more roles, and changed the rules around layoffs and terminations, among others.

Not yet in force are rules requiring unions to calculate and disclose what proportion of dues are used for political activities and other causes.

It will make Alberta unions the only ones in Canada required to categorize their expenses and ask workers to opt into paying dues toward political campaigns. Unions would also have to disclose financial statements to all of their members.

An analysis by Athabasca University labour relations Prof. Jason Foster describes the potential effects on union finances and operations as severe and intrusive.

The Alberta Federation of Labour said it plans to challenge the law in court, once proclaimed, including the sections on union dues.

NDP labour and immigration critic Christina Gray said employers are telling her the new rules are cumbersome.

"What we're seeing is the UCP government is interested only in suppressing the voices of working people," she said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Janet French

Janet French is a provincial affairs reporter with CBC Edmonton. She has also worked at the Edmonton Journal and Saskatoon StarPhoenix. You can reach her at janet.french@cbc.ca

    CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
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    PROJECT CYBERSYN


    Socialist Cybernetics in Allende's Chile - 
    by E MEDINA - ‎Cited by 116 - ‎Related articles in Allende's Chile*. EDEN MEDINA. Abstract. This article presents a history of 'Project Cybersyn', an early computer network developed in Chile during the .... 9 Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine .... by this new application of his work, invited Beer to visit him at MIT.


    PROJECT CYBERSYN #SOCIALIST #SELFMANAGEMENT THROUGH #AI, #CYBERNETICS, #ROBOTICS,. WORKERS CONTROL OF PRODUCTION THROUGH #AUTOMATION IN THE #GRUNDRISSE #MARX POSTULATES THAT WITH THE ADVENT OF TECHNOLOGY FREEING PEOPLE'S TIME, AND HIS THEORY OF VALUE IS BASED ON TIME NOT SKILL, THAT IS SPENT IN PRODUCTION OF EXCHANGE VALUE.

     AS PEOPLE HAVE MORE TIME TO THEMSELVES WITH THE EIGHT HOUR DAY THE CONTRADICTION BECOMES NOT JUST THAT CAPITALISM IMPOVERSHIVES YOU ECONOMICALLY BUT IT STEALS YOUR TIME AS WELL AND USES IT AGAINST YOU INSTEAD OF UNEMPLOYMENT BY AI AND ROBOT WE SHOULD HAVE THE FOUR HOUR DAY, FOUR DAY WEEK, FORTY HOURS PAY IN FACT WE COULD ABOLISH MONEY WITH THE NEW FINTECH AND WE COULD FREE UP EVEN MORE TIME TO WORK ONLY TEN HOURS A WEEK FOR SOCIAL PRODUCTION FOR CREATING OUR COMMONWEALTH WHILE THE TECHNOLOGY CREATED COULD FREE US FROM TIME SPENT IN THE MACHINE, INSTEAD WE COULD WORK LESS AND PLAY MORE. BUT CAPITALISM PREVENTS THAT, IT SLOWS US DOWN AND INSTEAD OF FREEDOM WE GET UNEMPLOYMENT HERE IS THE SOCIALIST VIEW OF #TECHNOLOGY AS AN AID FOR SELF MANAGEMENT OF OUR WORKPLACES IT WAS AN EXPERIMENT CONDUCTED IN ALLENDE'S CHILE BY NORBERT WIENER AND STAFFORD BEER



     HERE IS THE PDF OF EDEN MEDINA'S BOOK 
    Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile
    However, the MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener, one of the originators of the field, offers one of the most-cited definitions. In 1948 he described cybernetics as the study of “control and communication in the animal and the machine.”14 Cybernetics often mixed metaphors from engineering and biology to describe the .

     HER PHD THESIS WHICH THE BOOK IS BASED ON ]The State Machine: Politics, Ideology, and Computation in Chile ... - Core
     https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/4403874.pdf The MIT Program in Science, Technology and Society generously provided three years of tuition and ... to Allende's Chile and several years later allowed me to teach this history to his undergraduate ...... Allende period. 8 Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, 2nd ed. 

     The Cybersyn Revolution -
     Jacobin 
    Apr 27, 2015 - Project Cybersyn was a bold technological project tied to a bold political project. It emerged in the context of Chile's peaceful road to socialism: Salvador Allende had won the Chilean presidency in 1970 with a promise to build a fundamentally different society. His political program would make Chile a ... 

     Cybernetic Revolutionaries | The MIT Press https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cybernetic-revolutionaries 
    Neither vision was fully realized—Allende's government ended with a violent military coup; the system, known as Project Cybersyn, was never completely implemented—but they hold lessons for today about the relationship between technology and politics. Drawing on extensive archival material and interviews, Medina ... 

     Andy Beckett: The forgotten story of Chile's 'socialist internet ... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile Sep 8, 2003 - In the many histories of the endlessly debated, frequently mythologised Allende period, Project Cybersyn hardly gets a footnote. Yet the personalities involved, the amount they achieved, the scheme's optimism and ambition and perhaps, in the end, its impracticality, contain important truths about the most ... 

     Project Cybersyn - Stafford Beer's Cybernetic Science Fictions ... Video for project cybersyn
    ▶ 23:08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCO3vXyR-c4 Apr 20, 2012 - Uploaded by Malthus0

    Free As In Beer: Cybernetic Science Fictions - A paper delivered at the 2009 Pacific Ancient and Modern ... Project Cybersyn: Chile & the Socialist Internet - YouTube Video for project cybersyn▶ 2:09:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGTEoJI5-Y4 
    Jan 31, 2015 - Uploaded by CybrSalon Cybersalon & Centre for the Study of Democracy 6th December - University of Westminster, London In Chile ... 

     Cybersyn: Control the economy from one central room - 
    Video for project cybersyn▶ 22:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7_ylHj-AUA
    Oct 31, 2015 - Uploaded by Max Zamora Under Salvador Allende's socialist government, a project was under way called Project CyberSyn or Proyecto ... 

     Project Cybersyn: Chile 2.0 in 1973 | iRevolutions https://irevolutions.org/2009/02/21/project-cybersyn-chile-20-in-1973/ 
    Feb 21, 2009 - My colleague Lokman Tsui at the Berkman Center kindly added me to the Harvard-MIT-Yale Cyberscholars working group and I attended the second roundtable of the year yesterday. These roundtables typically comprise three sets of presentations followed by discussions. Introducing Cybersyn 

     - Marginal REVOLUTION
    Dec 7, 2009 - Cybersyn was a project of the socialist government of Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and British cybernetic visionary Stafford Beer; its goal was to control the Chilean economy in real-time using computers and "cybernetic principles." ... The two computers supposedly used to run the ... 

     Project Cybersyn – A failed experiment in Big Data and Socialism in ... https://www.peerlyst.com › Explore › Posts Feb 21, 2018 - private, systems, free - I read about this a few months back or maybe a year, I read way too much to remember all the details. It is a story about a new governm. 

     Before '73 Coup, Chile Tried to Find the Right Software for Socialism ... www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/world/americas/28cybersyn.html 
    Mar 28, 2008 - 
    Cybersyn, a project that included a clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines, was in the early 1970s a part of an experiment to help manage Chile's economy. What were the general motivations of Project Cybersyn? 



    What were the general motivations of Project Cybersyn?
    - Quora 
     https://www.quora.com/What-were-the-general-motivations-of-Project-Cybersyn Dec 10, 2016 - Cybersyn was an ambitious project in technology and design meant to help Chile's socialist economy succeed. It's objectives have an interesting backstory. President Salvador Allende had recently become president after a free election. Allende hope... 

     Good ideas that didn't pan out, part 2: Project Cybersyn
    Sep 18, 2014 - Part 2: Project Cybersyn. Around the time the first email was sent, not long after ARPANET, the Internet's predecessor, was first connected, a group of high-minded computer scientists in Chile tried to run their country's economy by computer. In 1971, the Chilean government of Salvador Allende signed a ... 

     Project Cybersyn and the Origins of Algorithmic Life | Open Geography https://opengeography.wordpress.com/2015/03/09/cybersyn-and-algorithmic-life/ Mar 9, 2015 - One of the left's commonly accepted stories about neoliberalism is that it got some of its first real-world tests in Pinochet's Chile in the early 1970s. Following a coup and the violent end to socialist Salvador Allende's government (in which Allende took his own life in the Presidential Palace), probably with the ...

     Project Cybersyn | “At last, el pueblo” | dpr-barcelona https://dprbcn.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/project-cybersyn-2/ Aug 27, 2010 - According to the research project CYBERSYN, Cybernetic Synergy, internationally, the country was viewed with curiosity and mistrust, and in terms of internal affairs, different political groups wasted no time in planning a strategy to produce the debacle of the Socialist government, joining forces with the ... 

    . Computers and the Internet: A global history. Chile — Project Cybersyn. Today. ▻ Review. ▻ Homeostasis: a fundamental cybernetic principle. ▻ Chile, Stafford Beer, and Project Cybersyn.

     CYBERSYN/Cybernetic Synergy
     “Dear friends, I should like to greet you personally to this place, in the development of which I have taken enormous personal interest, and for this reason I am asking you to take a special interest in it. What you see is the outcome of 18 months of hard work on the part of a group of extremely professional Chilean engineers ... 

    Project Cybersyn, Beer, Stafford, Hand written in black fountain pen., March 1972, Image, application/pdf, Liverpool John Moores University, Special Collections and Archives: Stafford Beer Collection, Box 60 (Chile), English, JMU, 

     Santiago dreaming https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2003/sep/08/sciencenews.chile When Pinochet's military overthrew the Chilean government 30 years ago, they discovered a revolutionary communication system, a 'socialist internet' connecting the whole country. Its creator? An eccentric scientist from Surrey. Andy Beckett on the forgotten story of Stafford Beer Project Cybersyn Project Cybersyn, Beer, Stafford, Hand written in black fountain pen., March 1972, Image, application/pdf, Liverpool John Moores University, Special Collections and Archives: Stafford Beer Collection, Box 60 (Chile), English, JMU, 

     The Socialist Origins of Big Data | The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/planning-machine 
    Oct 13, 2014 - The consultant, Stafford Beer, had been brought in by Chile's top planners to help guide the country down what Salvador Allende, its democratically .... Norbert Wiener's classic “Cybernetics; or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine” (1948) discussed human behavior by drawing on his ... Writings on Norbert Wiener - Thinking Machines in the Physical World ... 21stcenturywiener.org/writings-on-norbert-wiener/ The writer's critical perspective regarding military technology leads to a co-biography supportive of Wiener but not of von Neumann. Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and politics in Allende's Chile E. Medina (Cambridge MA: MIT Press 2011). Wiener dubbed Stafford Beer the father of management cybernetics. 

    Rethinking algorithmic regulation | Kybernetes | Vol 44, No 6/7 www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/K-02-2015-0052?fullSc=1 
    A discussion of Project Cybersyn requires a discussion of Stafford Beer, whom Norbert Wiener described as “the father of management cybernetics.” Beer conducted ....

     M.I.T. Scholar's 1949 Essay on Machine Age Is Found - The New York  Times
    May 20, 2013 - The Machine Age,” an essay written for The New York Times by Norbert Wiener, a visionary mathematician, languished for six decades in the M.I.T. ... 1948 he had published “Cybernetics,” a landmark theoretical work that both foreshadowed and influenced the arrival of computing, robotics and automation.

     The Lost 1949 Essay That Predicted The Computerized World We Live In http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-lost-1949-essay-that-predicted-the-computerized-wor-509540334? [PDF]

    The Machine Age, version 3, 1949 - Monoskop https://monoskop.org/images/3/31/Wiener_Norbert_The_Machine_Age_v3_1949.pdfPage 1 of 8. The Machine Age, by Norbert Wiener, version 3, 1949. Copyright Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

     Courtesy of MIT Institute Archives and Special Collections, Norbert Wiener Papers, 

     Cybernetic Revolutionaries - 
    P2P Foundation wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Cybernetic_Revolutionaries May 1, 2015 - Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile. By Eden Medina. MIT Press, 2011. URL = http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/cybernetic-revolutionaries ... Computers that merely enabled factory automation were of little use; what Beer called the “cussedness of things” required human involvement. It's here that ... 



     Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the ... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cybernetics-Second-Control...Machine.../B002XUKWLC Rating: 5 - ‎4 reviews Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (MIT Press) eBook: Norbert Wiener: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store. ... Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile (MIT Press). Prodigy of probability | MIT News news.mit.edu/2011/timeline-wiener-0119 Jan 19, 2011 - Norbert Wiener gained fame as the father of cybernetics, but his earlier work on statistical descriptions of complex systems may prove more important. 

    “Who believed in a second industrial revolution? 'the age of computers ... https://repub.eur.nl/pub/50302/Explaining-computers-v4-juli-13.pdf by D van Lente - ‎2013 for the second industrial revolution we could quote luminaries like Norbert Wiener, J.D. Bernal,. CP Snow and many others. ... computers and automation spread very quickly during the fifties and sixties, and one may expect that they raised ... Technology and politics in Allende's Chile (Cambridge, Mass: MIT. Press 2011). 

     Towards a Rhizomatic Technical History of Control By Goffey, Andrew | New Formations, Summer 2015 |https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-435637263/towards-a-rhizomatic-technical-history-of-control 

     On Socialist Cybernetics, Accelerationist Dreams, and Tiqqun’s Nightmares 

     Alleys of Your Mind: Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas 
     Algorithms Dec 18, 2016 - “One day, it's going to no longer be arbitrary to reframe 20th century proposal and its clever machines as a quest for the confident definition of blunders, abnormality, trauma, and catastrophe—a set of ideas that must be understood of their cognitive, technological and political composition. it can be ...

    1. AUGMENTED INTELLIGENCE TRAUMAS

      https://library.oapen.org/.../978-3-95796-066-5-Alleys_of_Your_Mind.pdf · PDF file

      Alleys of Your Mind: Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas. ... Augmented Intelligence and Its Traumas


     Norbert Wiener’s Vision: The Impact of “the Automatic Age” on Our Moral Lives 
    Terrell Ward Bynum Southern Connecticut State University http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/activities/ieg/e-library/bynum.pdf 
    Foreseeing the Information Age During the Second World War, while working to design a new kind of antiaircraft cannon, mathematician Norbert Wiener and several of his colleagues developed a new branch of applied science — the science of information feedback systems — which Wiener named “cybernetics”. With impressive foresight, Wiener realized that this new science, when combined with the electronic digital computers that were being developed to support the war effort, had enormous social and ethical implications. Soon after the Second World War, therefore, Wiener began to write and lecture about the social and ethical challenges of the coming “automatic age”, which he also called “the second industrial revolution”


    Control: Digitality as Cultural Logic
     Front Cover Seb Franklin MIT Press, Sep. 4, 2015 - Philosophy - 211 pages 1 Review https://books.google.ca/books?id=j4OICgAAQBAJ&dq=MIT+CHILE+ALLENDE+AUTOMATION+NORBERT+WIENER&source=gbs_navlinks_s https://www.amazon.ca/Control-Digitality-as-Cultural-Logic/dp/0262029537/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1522280369&sr=1-1&keywords=9780262029537&dpID=41gMUHsF2KL&preST=_SY264_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch Is there a cultural logic of what we have come to call the information age? Have the technologies and techniques centered on the computer provided not only tools but also the metaphors through which we now understand the social and economic formation of our world? In Control, Seb Franklin addresses the conditions of knowledge that make the concept of the "information economy" possible while at the same time obscuring its deleterious effects on material social spaces. In so doing, Franklin traces three intertwined threads: the relationships among information, labor, and social management that emerged in the nineteenth century; the mid-twentieth-century diffusion of computational metaphors; and the appearance of informatic principles in certain contemporary socioeconomic and cultural practices. Drawing on critical theory, media theory, and the history of science, Franklin names control as the episteme grounding late capitalism. Beyond any specific device or set of technically mediated practices, digitality functions within this episteme as the logical basis for reshaped concepts of labor, subjectivity, and collectivity, as well as for the intensification of older modes of exclusion and dispossession. In tracking the pervasiveness of this logical mode into the present, Franklin locates the cultural traces of control across a diverse body of objects and practices, from cybernetics to economic theory and management styles, and from concepts of language and subjectivity to literary texts, films, and video games.


     How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet
     Between 1959 and 1989, Soviet scientists and officials made numerous attempts to network their nation -- to construct a nationwide computer network. None of these attempts succeeded, and the enterprise had been abandoned by the time the Soviet Union fell apart. Meanwhile, ARPANET, the American precursor to the Internet, went online in 1969. Why did the Soviet network, with top-level scientists and patriotic incentives, fail while the American network succeeded? In How Not to Network a Nation, Benjamin Peters reverses the usual cold war dualities and argues that the American ARPANET took shape thanks to well-managed state subsidies and collaborative research environments and the Soviet network projects stumbled because of unregulated competition among self-interested institutions, bureaucrats, and others. The capitalists behaved like socialists while the socialists behaved like capitalists. After examining the midcentury rise of cybernetics, the science of self-governing systems, and the emergence in the Soviet Union of economic cybernetics, Peters complicates this uneasy role reversal while chronicling the various Soviet attempts to build a "unified information network." Drawing on previously unknown archival and historical materials, he focuses on the final, and most ambitious of these projects, the All-State Automated System of Management (OGAS), and its principal promoter, Viktor M. Glushkov. Peters describes the rise and fall of OGAS -- its theoretical and practical reach, its vision of a national economy managed by network, the bureaucratic obstacles it encountered, and the institutional stalemate that killed it. Finally, he considers the implications of the Soviet experience for today's networked world. 

     Excerpts from How Not to Network a Nation: The Uneasy History of the
     by B Peters - ‎2016 - ‎Related articles May 2, 2016 - MIT Press: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/how-not-network-nation .... Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, 1948, concluding line ..... Eden Medina, Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011).

    Building the information society: A history of computing as a mass medium
     ProQuest


    Folk Psychology as Mental Simulation (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Introduction: The Mechanical Mind Philip Husbands, Michael Wheeler, and Owen Holland https://gpreview.kingborn.net/182000/98248e2a7b3a4326813d6ad7a7948ac5.pdf


    Dreams in Cybernetic Fugue - Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences hsns.ucpress.edu/content/46/5/633.full-text.pdf 


     InterNyet: why the Soviet Union did not build a nationwide computer network
     Slava Gerovitch* Taylor and Francis GHAT_A_304641.sgm 10.1080/07341510802044736 History and Technology 0734-1512 (print)/1477-2620 (online) Original Article 2008 Taylor & Francis 
    244000000December 2008 SlavaGerovitch slava@MIT.edu This article examines several Soviet initiatives to develop a national computer network as the technological basis for an automated information system for the management of the national economy in the 1960s–1970s. It explores the mechanism by which these proposals were circulated, debated, and revised in the maze of Party and government agencies. The article examines the role of different groups – cybernetics enthusiasts, mathematical economists, computer specialists, government bureaucrats, and liberal economists – in promoting, criticizing, and reshaping the concept of a national computer network. The author focuses on the political dimension of seemingly technical proposals, the relationship between information and power, and the transformative role of users of computer technology 


     Definition of Cybernetics | Blog | Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan bernardg.com/blog/definition-cybernetics by B Geoghegan - ‎Related articles Ever wonder what cybernetics was? Or maybe is? It's a baffling question and even the leading theorists of cybernetics in the 1940s and 1950s could hardly agree on the definition. In the last few years historians Eden Medina and Andrew Pickering, for example, have shown that the understanding, definition, and use of cybernetics varied tremendously from one context to another. Even Norbert Wiener, who is widely credited with founding cybernetics, offered varying and contradictory accounts of the field. Recently communications theorist BEN PETERS and I wrote up our own definition and introduction to the field for the forthcoming JOHNS HOPKINS GUIDE TO DIGITAL MEDIA AND TEXTUALITY, edited by Lori Emerson, Benjamin Robertson, and Marie-Laure Ryan. The editors have put together a stellar volume with entries by Simon Penny, Jay David Bolter, Matthew Fuller, Matthew Gold, Johanna Drucker, Jussi Parikka, Eduardo Kac and other notable theorists of digital media. Below is the rough draft of the entry Ben and I prepared. For the final, more polished draft, pick up a copy of the guide when it comes out. 

    The Cybernetics Moment: Or Why We Call Our Age the Information Age 
    by Ronald R. Kline. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015, 352 pp. http://issues.org/33-4/book-review-a-coming-of-information-age-story/ 
    What was cybernetics? As Ronald Kline tells it in his new intellectual history, The Cybernetics Moment: Or Why We Call Our Age the Information Age, cybernetics suffered from being too many things at once: an interdisciplinary field of study, a philosophical worldview, a popular buzzword, an intellectual fad, and a theory of automation and control. That it could be all these things and not be wholly incoherent is a testament to the genius of its creator, the mathematician and philosopher Norbert Wiener. In charting the rise, fall, and legacy of cybernetics, Kline attempts to prove, mostly successfully, that it was cybernetics that gave rise to the coinage and conception of our “information age.” 


     The Cybernetics Society
    Web site of The Cybernetics Society, the UK national learned society and professional body promoting pure and applied cybernetics information archive news events. 


     Here Lies Project Cybersyn aedhgsa.ca/docs/Strata/Volume_7/STRATA_vol7_ROSE_CLANCEY.pdf
     by R CLANCEY - ‎Related articles Interrompu par le coup d'État qui mit fin au gouvernement .... President Salvador Allende sought to bring great change to Chile, and. Project Cybersyn was a part of his program for a modern, independent, socialist Chile. .... 19 See: Norbert Weiner, Cybernetics; or, Control and communication in the animal and the machine.

     the strange loops of Leo and Norbert Wiener - WordPress.com
    Apr 29, 2013 - sciences: the strange loops of Leo and Norbert Wiener, Russian Journal of Communication, 5:1,. 31-43. To link to this article: ...... Cybernetic revolutionaries: Technology and politics in Allende's Chile. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. New York: Oxford University ... [PDF]

    Mechanical Mind in History - EPDF.TIPS
    https://epdf.tips/download/the-mechanical-mind-in-history-bradford-books.html interest in the subject carried over into peacetime. In the early 1940s a circle of scientists intent on understanding general principles underlying behavior in animals and machines began to gather around the MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894–1964). Inspired by. Wiener's classified work on automatic gun aiming, ...

     EXPERIMENTAL FUTURES Beautiful Data: A History of Vision and Reason since 1945
     By Orit Halpern Duke University Press
    ISBN electronic: 978-0-8223-7632-3 
    Publication date: 2015 
    Beautiful Data is both a history of big data and interactivity, and a sophisticated meditation on ideas about vision and cognition in the second half of the twentieth century. Contending that our forms of attention, observation, and truth are contingent and contested, Orit Halpern historicizes the ways that we are trained, and train ourselves, to observe and analyze the world. Tracing the postwar impact of cybernetics and the communication sciences on the social and human sciences, design, arts, and urban planning, she finds a radical shift in attitudes toward recording and displaying information. These changed attitudes produced what she calls communicative objectivity: new forms of observation, rationality, and economy based on the management and analysis of data. Halpern complicates assumptions about the value of data and visualization, arguing that changes in how we manage and train perception, and define reason and intelligence, are also transformations in governmentality. She also challenges the paradoxical belief that we are experiencing a crisis of attention caused by digital media, a crisis that can be resolved only through intensified media consumption. 


     Human Control and Autonomy in Cybernetic Systems
     David Shen Georgetown University 
    Abstract This paper is meant to question the idea that humans in cybernetic systems are autonomous in the traditional western liberal conception. Examination of the history of cybernetics reveals conflicts over the role of humans within human/machine systems over a larger period than is traditionally associated with the field of cybernetics. By comparing cybernetic systems from before the 20th century and through the Cold War, it becomes apparent how cybernetics served as an experimental testing ground for political ideologies to express themselves in the budding information age. Comparing cybernetics systems in this manner suggests that cybernetics as a discipline does not inherently support or contradict the ideals of freedom and agency, but rather, cybernetic systems become extensions of the organizations they serve and adopt their parent organizations beliefs. 


    Towards Scalable Governance: Sensemaking and Cooperation in the Age of Social Media
    November 24, 2016 Abstract Cybernetics, or self-governance of animal and machine, requires the ability to sense the world and to act on it in an appropriate manner. Likewise, self-governance of a human society requires groups of people to collectively sense and act on their environment. I argue that the evolution of political systems is characterized by a series of innovations that attempt to solve (among others) two ‘scalability’ problems: scaling up a group’s ability to make sense of an increasingly complex world, and to cooperate in increasingly larger groups. I then explore some recent efforts towards using the Internet and social media to provide alternative means for addressing these scalability challenges, under the banners of crowdsourcing and computer-supported argumentation. I present some lessons from those efforts about the limits of technology, and the research directions more likely to bear fruit merging the natural with the artificial: the nature of a ... 

     by AJ Malapi-Nelson - ‎2015 - ‎Related articles Abstract This thesis is concerned with the rise and fall of cybernetics, understood as an inquiry regarding the nature of a machine. The collapse of this scientific movement, usually explained by external factors such as lack of funding, will be addressed from a philosophical standpoint. Delving deeper into the theoretical core of cybernetics, one could find that the contributions of William Ross Ashby and John von Neumann shed light onto the particular ways in which cybernetics understood the nature and behavior of a machine. Ross Ashby offered an account of the nature of a machine and then extended the scope of “the mechanical”. This extension would encompass areas that will later be shown to be problematic for mechanization, such as learning and adaptation. The way in which a machine-ontology was applied would trigger effects seemingly contrary to cybernetics’ own distinctive features. Von Neumann, on the other hand, tinkered with a mechanical model of the brain, realizing grave limitations that prompted him to look for an alternative for cybernetics to work on. The proposal that came out of this resulted in a serious blow against the theoretical core of cybernetics. Why did cybernetics collapse? The contributions coming from both thinkers, in their own ways, spelled out the main tenets of the cybernetic proposal. But these very contributions led to cybernetics’ own demise. The whole story can be framed under the rubric of a serious inquiry into the metaphysical underpinnings of a machine. The rise and fall of cybernetics could thus help us better understand what a machine is from a philosophical standpoint. Although a historical component is present, my emphasis relies on a philosophical consideration of the cybernetic phenomenon. This metaphysical dissection will attempt to clarify how a machine-based ontology remained at the core of cybernetics. An emerging link will hopefully lead towards establishing a tri-partite correlation between cybernetics’ own evolution, its theoretical core, and its collapse. It will hopefully show how cybernetic inquiries into the nature of a machine might have proved fatal to the very enterprise at large, due to unsolvable theoretical tensions. 

     Claus Pias 
    In Defense of Cybernetics. A Reminiscence
    One cannot speak of defense without also speaking of cybernetics. From a historical point of view, it recommends itself as the science of defense par excellence, and in two respects. On the one hand, it owes its modern form essentially to the air defense systems of World War Two, i.e. automatic target prediction and enemy tracking. Peter Galison was right in particularly emphasizing this point and developing it into a broad contemporary-history diagnosis (Galison 1994). On the other hand, however, the question of system stabilization, the establishing of dynamic balances, can also be seen from the perspective of defense. After their being modeled, by which the relevant factors for their regulating activity is determined, cybernetic systems stabilize themselves through continuous defense against everything that might constitute a threat to their continuity. Cybernetic systems are constantly threatened with destabilization and constantly legitimized by defense. Hence, perturbation constitutes their right to exist, and defense appears as a positive force. Perturbation is what causes a permanent need for intervention, and defense is what permanently fulfills it. Therefore, cybernetics is to be characterized as a technical as well as a political science. And this brings back into focus that cybernetics – long before its neurologically and computer technologically inspired reinvention towards the end of WW II – has a double origin. In Greek antiquity, it means technology and politics at the same time: it designates both procedures of controlling missiles and procedures of controlling history; it names the control of material things and of historical events; it repels intruding enemies and adverse conditions, in both cases maintaining a paradoxical relationship with the future.


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