System theory’s true goal is performativity, optimizing input-output ratios

Evidence

In Parsons’s work, the principle behind the system is still, if I may say so, optimistic: it corresponds to the stabilization of the growth economies and societies of abundance under the aegis of a moderate welfare state. In the work of contemporary German theorists,systemtheorieis technocratic, even cynical, not to mention despairing: the harmony between the needs and hopes of individuals or groups and the functions guaranteed by the system is now only a secondary component of its functioning. The true goal of the system, the reason it programs itself like a computer, is the optimization of the global relationship between input and output — in other words, performativity. Even when its rules are in the process of changing and innovations are occurring, even when its dysfunctions (such as strikes, crises, unemployment, or political revolutions) inspire hope and lead to belief in an alternative, even then what is actually taking place is only an internal readjustment, and its result can be no more than an increase in the system’s “viability.” The only alternative to this kind of performance improvement is entropy, or decline. — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 148

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘performativity’ as the system’s optimizing goal — a concept essential to the postmodern condition.
• XREF: Performativity is the exact term Jameson’s critique addresses as postmodern efficiency-worship. — connects to: Research funding subordinates truth to the goal of performativity — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 342; Science’s paralogy is the antimodel to the totalizing performativity system — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 444; A performativity-driven system defines needs by their value to performance, not by suffering — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on…, 438 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Totalizing truth-seeking theory gets co-opted by the system’s optimization #expands (0.88) — Jean-François Lyotard, The Postmodern Condition, 154
• Efficiency is treated as uncontestable truth rather than a contestable value #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 121
• Optimizing for stated goals produces monstrous outcomes #complicates (0.82) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 655
• Design choices optimizing for one task can cripple performance on the real task #complicates (0.75) — Brian Christian, The Alignment Problem, 1221