The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions - and How The World Lost its Mind

About this book

Entertaining insightful ... compelling Financial Times A clear and compelling account of how decision-making works or rather doesnt in the twenty-first century. It will make you look at the world differently Stephen Bush When we avoid taking a decision what happens to it? In The Unaccountability Machine Dan Davies examines why markets institutions and even governments systematically generate outcomes that everyone involved claims not to want. He casts new light on the writing of Stafford Beer a legendary economist who argued in the 1950s that we should regard organisations as artificial intelligences capable of taking decisions that are distinct from the intentions of their members. Management cybernetics was Beers science of applying self-regulation in organisational settings but it was largely ignored - with the result being the political and economic crises that that we see today. With his signature blend of cynicism and journalistic rigour Davies looks at whats gone wrong and what might have been had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance.