Stafford Beer
*Beer’s admirers view his intelligence, breadth of knowledge, and willingness to think in unconventional ways as signs of misunderstood genius. On the other hand, his detractors paint a picture of a self-promoter who made grandiose claims that were not backed by his actual accomplishments
Beer was an unusual cybernetician in his deep commitment to democratic control systems
He was not a typical socialist but looked the part of a 1970s business hippie – being a management consultant with a beard of biblical proportions – but he was far more like Neurath and Kantorovich than like Stewart Brand or Ed Bass
"The more I reflect on these facts, the more I perceive that the evolutionary approach to adaptation in social systems simply will not work any more. . . . It has therefore become clear to me over the years that I am advocating revolution"
– Stafford Beer quoted in Cybernetic Revolutionaries