Meeting view-sampling machines

Keith England

Each person in a business or committee meeting could be equipped with a control knob with positions 3,2,1,0,-1,-2,-3 signifying from being wholly in favour (3) to abstention (0) to being totally opposed (-3). (Ed: these devices could be similar to the electronic ones now being used in TV game shows where the studio audience vote for their favourites.)

The simple central computer display would then read out the vote, indicating the strength of the support for the motion. This represents value added to a decision at very little cost. Additionally the method is quicker than counting hands or a secret ballot. And at present the thinking of each person is devalued by the simple adversarial yes-no vote and by the lack of ability to express an opinion accurately, or to indicate depth of feeling.

'At present the thinking of each person is devalued by the simple adversarial yes-no vote and the lack of ability to express an opinion accurately, or to indicate depth of feeling'

There are other uses which would probably become commonplace. If members continuously adjusted their knobs then the chairman could see instantaneously the existing degree of support and could cease the discussion when the voters were already convinced without further time-wasting discussion. Where a chairman felt that a contribution was irrelevant, he or she could obtain a snap decision and would then be in a far more assured position to end that particular speech.

Keith England, Langdale, Jordans, Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 2ST (tel 02407 5816).

Comment by Professor Stafford Beer

Professor Stafford Beer writes that he proposed a similar Algedonic Meter for use in Chile in 1971 - his son, Simon, constructed a trial system. The best reference is Beer's book 'Brain of the Firm', (published by John Wiley, 2nd edition, 1981, pp 278-286), which contains a fascinating account of his cybernetics work for the Allende government in Chile. Here are relevant extracts from the book:

The algedonic meter is at last an attempt to provide a metric for Aristotle's eudemony, or 'state of general well being.' It is a simple analogue device, with interleaved segments in different colours. Thus to turn the central knob changes the proportion of the 'happy/unhappy' display - and also the electrical input to the circle of which this meter is a member.

Someone holding an algedonic meter sets the display by moving the pointer anywhere on a continuous scale between total disquiet and total satisfaction. She/he does not have to explain anything - only to respond algedonically, which people may be observed to do all the time.

There could be an official locale, housing a television set and a properly constituted sample of people, having one meter between (say) three. The meters drive a simple electrical system, which sums the voltage for this locale.

Now: when a broadcast is taking place, the people's eudemony is indicated on a meter in the TV studio - which everyone (those in the studio and the public) can see. The studio meter is driven by the sum of the people's meters. This closes the algedonic loop...

'People would be able to participate in arguments broadcast from the People's Assembly by the continuous registration of a combined degree of satisfaction with events'

People would be able to participate in arguments broadcast from the People's Assembly - not by responding to questions hurled at them over the air, for this route leads to logical reductionism and to political demagoguery, but by the continous registration of a combined degree of satisfaction with events. It has to be noted that not only would the meter be visible to those present in the Assembly, but also to the public whose meter it is...

The problem at present is that the government communicates directly with the undifferentiated mass of the people as if it were speaking to the individual, and creates the illusion in the home that it is. The context of this false dialogue is that the individual is also supplied by the new media with a proliferation of information and misinformation about things - as soon as they happen.

We see this effect as:

- Massive amplification of variety, insofar as single-sentence utterances may be developed into hour-long simulations of imagined consequences.
- Massive changes in dynamic periodicity: the government is reporting to the nation daily, instead of accounting for itself at election times.

But the return loop does not change. The variety that the people generate is attenuated as before. This situation attempts to disobey the Law of Requisite Variety, and disbalances the homeostatic equilibrium in both richness and in period.

Then it is predictable that the people, thus affected, will build up pressures in the system that can no longer be released - because the filtering capacity cannot contain the flow.

'This is bound to lead to unrest: demonstrations, agitation, perhaps violence, possibly revolt...'

This is bound to lead to unrest: demonstrations, agitation, perhaps violence, possibly revolt...

(My algedonic meter experiments) were alas, not finally undertaken by the time that the (Allende) government fell...At any rate, I hope that new experiments on these lines will be facilitated somewhere. A plausible experiment, for example, would be to equip a conference hall with closed algedonic loops: would the speaker become yet more steadily boring and obscure as the summation meter steadily dropped - for all to see?

Professor Stafford Beer, 34 Palmerston Square, Toronto, Ontario, M6G 2S7, Canada (tel 416 535 0396).

Editorial comment

One requirement for a device for use in meetings is that it should be under the table, operated ideally by foot - at least in its Boreometer mode. For the average person, it seems to take too much courage above the table - it would be like interrupting the speaker to tell him or her that you are bored; although Beer says that an individual in Manchester called James Baldwin used an above-table cube with six coloured faces, simply exhibiting one of the faces to the speaker, depending on mood.

The brain has evolved to decipher faces faster than any other information. The most effective view-sampling device therefore might be a computer-programmed face on the monitor which scowls or smiles broadly or slightly or not at all in proportion to the votes of those with access to it (to be backed up by a corresponding numerical total displayed on the side of the screen, for whenever a precise record required).

Comment by Valerie Yule

I have long wanted a console for speakers with say 144 red-lit buttons. As members of the audience freak out, they can press a button at their seat, and one of the console lights goes on. When 144 people are bored, the whole console flashes. Or, less technologically, there could be little pennants at seats, which can be flagged down when you stop listening.

'Churches could be lit by candles at each seat. As the congregation flags, they snuff out their candle, until the whole place is in darkness and the preacher gets the message'

Or churches could be lit by candles at each seat. As the congregation flags, they snuff out their candle, until the whole place is in darkness and the preacher gets the message.

(Ed: think you should also be allowed to light a second candle if you are finding the sermon particularly inspiring. It needs to be more than just a negatively indicating device.)

Valerie Yule, 57 Waimarie Drive, Mount Waverley, Victoria, Australia 3149 (tel 807 4315).

Previous / Next / Table of Contents