The Bernaysian Cliostat is an instrument for monitoring and intervening in culture, treating maladaptive cultural traits, and cultivating those traits with eusocial properties.
Idea: Bernays & Clio-stat
Edward Bernays is often regarded as being the father of Public Relations, a term that replaced the tarnished principle of propaganda. His scientific orientation was influenced by his uncle Sigmund Freud and drew upon psychology and the social sciences; he later termed his applied science approach as the Engineering of Consent – a term very much in alignment with cliology. The Adam Curtis documentary ‘the Century of Self’ is a fascinating insight into Bernays’ influence.
The cliostat refers to cliological stasis, that is control in relation to culture. It is to culture what a thermostat is to temperature. A thermostat is an instance of the principle of negative feedback in cybernetics and general systems theory. A thermostat, as used to control room temperature in a cold climate, has a sensor from the room, a setting for the desired temperature, and an output to a heater. Where the room is detected as being warmer or equal to the desired temperature, the heater is switched off, and the room is allowed to cool. Otherwise, where the room is detected as being colder than the desired temperature, then the heater is switched on and the room warms up. Apart from a slight delay, the room, through this simple mechanism, stays at around the temperature given by the setting. Even where perturbations from outside occur, such as a particularly cold night, then the room will be kept at a steady temperature. Negative feedback, in cybernetics, the science of control systems, gives rise to homeostasis: the maintenance of a steady-state. The idea of a cliostat then is the cybernetic maintenance of a steady-state in culture: it is the cultural analogue of a thermostat in that it employed negative feedback. Abstractly, a cliostat has a sensor, a detector that determines the present state of culture. It has a setting, the desired state of culture. It has an output, an effector that exerts an influence on culture. Where there is a differential between what is sensed and the setting then the cliostat will influence culture in a way that narrows that differential. Hence, it maintains homeostasis around the desired setting.
The term cliostat is introduced to promote thinking regarding the tech-enabled intervention in cultural practice for eusocial ends. Of course, the wider practice of social control is nothing new and has involved regulation, law and law enforcement, norms and taboos, sanctions, military action, even persuasion; all of these might be thought of as forms of cliostasis. The notion of the Bernaysian cliostat, however, is confined to the domain of culture (however widely defined) and operates not through force but rather through the more gentle mode of winning hearts and minds, a term used in war resolution, but equally applicable to politics, environmental concern, public health, or marketing. This is mode of public relations.
The Bernaysian cliostat, rather than operating on one parameter, would require multivariate the monitoring and influencing of cultural parameters. Furthermore, an array of cliostats might be required, positioned at strategic nodes in the social flow network topology. Rather than creating simple stasis, the settings would be adjusted dynamically so as to nudge culture along a specified trajectory. Initially, making the setting immediately to the desired outcome may prove to be too radical, and culture shock may ensure. NLP would prescribe pacing and leading: an acceptable degree of change would be first offered then the setting would gradually be adjusted in the direction of the intention.
Application and uses
The proposed target for the Bernaysian cliostat is that of tackling pathogenic memes and dangerous misinformation that manifest as cultural maladaptations such as radicalisation, violence, crime, inequality and so on, or inhibit the treatment of biological diseases. Essentially, this is a “meme war” where the prevalence of one meme outstrips another in the ecology of ideas. To address cultural maladaptations, beneficial memes would need to become more prevalent than pathogenic ones. Consequently, they would need to propagate and permeate throughout the social network. To do this, those memes would require assembling, then introduced and cultivated throughout society in response to an emerging crisis: this is the role of the cliostat. As a cybernetic instrument, the cliostat has both detectors and effectors which interface to its environment. Initially, in the role of a detector, placing cliostats into the flow network would provide a picture of “flyways and cultural tide tables“: how different types of information propagate through the population and who is susceptible. Having established these patterns of flow, then it would be possible to work out where the key nodes, such as bridging nodes, are and where any dangerous misinformation is likely to enter into a susceptible population. These nodes would become the targets for active surveillance and would monitor for patterns particular signatures of sentiment as they emerge thereby giving advanced warnings of an outbreak. The cliostat also has effectors which introduce information into the flow network. Such information is not only counter to the damaging ideologies but would also be more effective at spreading. In other words, pathogenic memes would be met with probiotic memes that have a higher reproductive rate and “case vitality ratio”. Upon recognising the presence of an insurgent problematic meme, the cliostat would be triggered to release its defensive response. It would also raise the alarm to some centralised coordinator which would activate other cliostats in the network. This would be a kind of “cyber chain home” system that uses the strategy of “heading off at the pass”.
A list of potential users was given on the landing page of this site:
- innovators, pioneers, dreamers, investors, corporate strategists,
- PR councils, ad-men, marketeers, sales forces, branding agencies,
- fashionistas, forecasters and pundits, influencers,
- strategic communicators, propagandists, psy-ops agents, thought shapers,
- priests, proseletists, evangelists, educators, disseminators,
- policy and decision-makers, town planners, activists, promoters, change agents, politicians
- and of course, megalomaniacs.
As noted elsewhere, megalomaniacs are included in this list to serve as a reminder that cliological tools are just that: tools. They are ethically agnostic as it is neither down to the tool, nor the toolmaker, to dictate their use. The “ploughshares or swords” dilemma is a matter for the tool user, and it is not possible nor rightful to impose restrictions on who may or may not use such tools. However, cliological tools, such as the cliostat, are about changing or encouraging cultural practices so, in the spirit of applying them for the benefit of society, they might well be employed in the encouragement of their own eusocial use.
Implementation
The Bernaysian cliostat is an abstract machine; it can be implemented in a variety of ways. To some informal extent, it already exists in the form of PR and strategic communication. However, the vision here is that of being tech-enabled. The internet is a digital overlay of the social flow topology. Cliostats, then, might well be developed as software bots that monitor and influence key web sites. Such things do already exist and are becoming more prevalent, but are not based on the scientific and highly structured approach of cliology; they do not have the core paradigm of memetics built-in. The actual development of the cliostat and related tool, as a functional software system, is still some way off, but their theoretical principles are in the process of development.
Related theory and technology
MENDEL
EDENML
Bernaysian Cliostat
Cyber Chain Home
Tripwire