An ecology of mind

There was a little-known dirt path down to a small cove beyond the road to Long Marine Lab and beyond the lab itself.

The first time I rode my bike past what was then the western edge of town and found my way to the ocean’s edge, I had a paperback copy of Gregory Bateson’s Steps to an Ecology of Mind in my pocket. Though the beach was clothing optional, what I was most excited about was cracking open the book.

As soon as I found a cozy place to settle, I dove into the opening “Metalogues,” amazing conversations between a cybernetic bio-anthropologist dad and his inquisitive daughter. (Can we ever forgive Facebook for absconding with the word meta? Grrr . . . . ). Each revelatory exchange began with questions such as “What is an instinct?” or “Why do Frenchmen wave their arms around?” that drew me in immediately.

Thumbing through my well-worn first edition, I realized it was this book that introduced me, in the summer of 1980, to the difference between analog and digital. It was where I came across anthropology, learned about logical types, encountered cybernetics as a worldview . . . and it is how I became a budding epistemologist. 

2022 is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of one of the books that rocked my world and changed my life forever. The kick-off event for a yearlong commemoration of this momentous event and the tenth anniversary of Warm Data is next Tuesday, March 29th, at 8:00 AM Pacific time. It’s happening on Zoom, you can sign up through Eventbrite, and there is no charge to participate. For more information and to sign up, please click here.