> Here is a passage relating exactly to what you were talking about, Tapio,
> from
> an old cybernetics text:
>
> http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/56949
>
> The last paragraph is perhaps the most telling -- that is, the removal of
> the
> particular, *the human* from the whole process and instead a consideration
> of
> the universal -- which, in itself, isn't bad (or good), but simply
> represents
> the world view of the Cold Warrior... This is the same process that is a
> fundamental distinguishing characteristic between Traditional Chinese
> medicine
> and Western medicine -- where in the West, there is the general
> (statistical)
> disease whose diagnosis is external to the individual, versus the
> condition of
> particular (internal and external both) flows which are unique to the
> individual
> in a TCM 'diagnosis'...
>
> jh
>

This appears to me to be also the main thesis in manuel de Landa's "War in
the age of Intelligent Machine" (closing out the human element, the
'weakest link in the chain', that is 'bound to make mistakes').

My own comparison, inspired by my experience with Marko Pelhjan's
Makrolab, is between the U.S. and the Sovjet space programmes. (and gimme
that vodka! ;-)

Cheerio, p+4D!