[From Dag Forssell (2009 0107 20:00 PST)]
Greg Williams put together the CLosed Loop Journal from early 1991
through late 1994, a total of 15 issues ranging from the first with ten
pages through the later ones with some 80 pages each–small books
actually.
In 2001, I reproduced six of the fifteen by running OCR, formatting in
PageMaker and printing to pdf. Now that Bill asked me to reproduce a
seventh, I thought at first that plain scans would do in this age of high
bandwidth, but find that Volume 4 number 1 with its close to 80 pages
requires 16 MB as a pdf image file. So that does not make sense to me.
The process of recreating the issue takes a couple of days, but the
result is clean. Here is Volume 4, number 1, recreated in Adobe InDesign
and printed to pdf. 311 kB.
As I work with the text, I am in awe of the huge amount of work editing
and publishing for CSG that Greg contributed.
I am working to post archives, including CSGnet and the issues of Closed
Loop that I have already, but more issues will have to wait until all
higher priority projects are taken care of
Best to all, Dag
Closed Loop vol4 #1.pdf (310 KB)
···
At 02:59 PM 12/2/2008, Bill Powers wrote:
[From Bill Powers
(2008.12.2.1128 MST)]
I have at least one reason for wishing it were 1994 again, but we are now
14 years later, and the future is looking good. While unpacking I have
come across Volume 4, Number 1, of Closed Loop, Winter 1994, the first
issue subtitled “Journal of Living Control Systems.” I think it
is time to reconstruct some of the spirit of that issue, and the
substance as well.
I know that Dag Forssell has assembled all the old issues of Closed Loop,
a journal started by Greg Williams with the initial title of
“Continuing the Conversation” and devoted to the ideas of
Gregory Bateson. In his editorial introduction to Volume 4 Number 1, Greg
says
*I hope that this will signal a shift in the contents away from CSGnet
conversations, toward research reports, clinical studies, and review
articles. My ultimate goal is a peer-reviewed journal which includes
contributions to the science of living control systems written by both
Control Systems Group members and non-members.*I, on the other hand, hope I can persuade Dag Forssell to put this
particular issue into electronic form and publish it on CSGnet – or
perhaps to put it into his Readings volume so it can be retrieved from
his web site. I hope everyone will read it. It is inspirational reading
for me partly because I am cheered up when I see nice things being said
about me, but mostly because of the growing realization, as I read it for
the first time in over a decade, that some people of extraordinary
quality were members of the CSG nine years after its founding. We have
become too used to each other, like brothers and sisters, and it has
become commonplace to expect intelligence, articulate communication,
creativity, and a deep grasp of PCT from those we encounter here. Reading
these words from the past reminded me of what we really have – not only
a new idea to develop and communicate, but people who are brave enough
and good enough at what they do to take on the task.My new book is being printed now, and when the proofs pass Alice’s
inspection (in one or two days if all goes well) it will be announced to
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere. Thanks to Warren Mansell, who
first recommended a book review to Nature and then ended up being
asked to write it himself, the review appeared on schedule (13 November
2008). Scientific American is discussing the possibility of an article on
PCT – their idea, as they were initially prodded (by Warren, again) only
to do a review. Who knows what is going to happen in 2009, especially
with Warren Mansell whipping up interest in the UK and Tim Carey doing
the same in Australia – and the Chinese waiting to be invited to
translate and publish the Chinese edition, and Dag Forssell unveiling his
enormous contribution toward providing resources on the Web? I think it
will be a good idea to bet on a turning of the tide.Lloyd Klinedinst and Fred Good have had ideas about starting a journal,
and Wolfgang Zocher actually began one on the Web, complete with ISBN
number. I don’t know what the political thing to do here is, but I
suggest that all these parties, Forssell, Williams, Klinedinst and Good,
and Zocher, get in touch with each other. Wolfgang is ill; I don’t know
if he can participate but he should be asked. We need an editor or
coeditors, a volunteer staff to answer mail, and whatever else the
founders decree.Previous journal attempts have failed for lack of submitted materials.
That will probably change next year, and I think we should be ready.
There should be a journal with authoritative peer reviewers available to
it for people exploring, testing, and applying PCT. It would be a shame
if the only place where a paper on perceptual control could be sent were
a conventional journal of psychology, where the reviewers all think that
negative feedback means adverse criticism. Apologies, by the way, if all
this has already been said by Lloyd and Fred.Perhaps what I hope most earnestly and sadly is that all those who have
ceased to participate in the CSG will, where possible, read this issue
and recall who the others in it were before all the bad things happened,
how we were all pursuing the bright shining Grail, and fashioning it at
the same time. Our differences with each other are as nothing compared
with the difference our work has yet to make in the world. Let’s declare
that the past is gone, and start work on the future.Best,
Bill P.