The Unaccountability Machine

Hardcover, 304 pages

English language

Published April 18, 2024 by Profile Books Limited.

ISBN:: 978-1-78816-954-7

(1 review)

Part-biography, part-political thriller, The Unaccountability Machine is a rousing exposé of how management failures lead organisations to make catastrophic errors.

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 Beer's 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 what's gone wrong, and what might have been, had the world listened to Stafford …

Part-biography, part-political thriller, The Unaccountability Machine is a rousing exposé of how management failures lead organisations to make catastrophic errors.

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 Beer's 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 what's gone wrong, and what might have been, had the world listened to Stafford Beer when it had the chance.

1 edition

Cian reviewed The Unaccountability Machine by Dan Davies

Interesting but slightly disappointing take on cybernetics.

4 stars

I expected to enjoy this more than I did, being familiar with Cybernetics from previous books and sharing many of Dan's views on management and economics.

Parts of the book are very good, particularly the way he outlines why neoliberalism/neoclassical economics fail to manage effectively, and the flaws with accounting. Other parts feel strangely unfinished, as if he had an idea and wasn't quite sure how to complete it. It's never entirely clear how he thinks cybernetics ideas can be incorporated into management, or how measurement can in practice be improved. And I found his belief in AI and aspects of management strangely naive, as was his belief that increased complexity is inevitable and we must deal with it (that maybe we need to simplify instead never really occurs to him).