Editing Stafford Beer (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Beer was born in [[Putney]], London in 1926. His father was William John Beer, chief statistician at [[Lloyd's Register|Lloyd's Register of Shipping]], who shared a birthday with his mother, Doris Ethel Beer.<ref name="Rosenhead Beer obit">{{cite journal |last1=Rosenhead |first1=Jonathan |title=Stafford Beer, 1926-2002 |journal=Journal of the Operational Research Society |date=2003 |volume=54 |issue=2}}</ref> At age 17 Stafford Beer was expelled from [[Whitgift School]]. He enrolled for a degree in philosophy at [[University College London]] before leaving to join the army as a Gunner in the [[Royal Artillery]] in 1944. He soon received [[Commission (document)|commissions]], first in the [[Royal Fusiliers]], and then as a [[company commander]] in the [[9 Gorkha Rifles|9th Gurkha Rifles]]. Beer served in [[India]], staying there until 1947, when he returned to England and was assigned to the Human factors Branch of [[Operations research]] at the [[War Office]]. In 1949, he was demobilised, having reached the rank of captain.<ref name=Tel>{{cite news|title=Obituaries: Stafford Beer|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1405557/Stafford-Beer.html|access-date=31 August 2015|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=28 August 2002}}</ref>

Beer did not use his given first name "Anthony", instead preferring his middle name of “Stafford.” His younger brother [[Ian Beer (rugby union)|Ian]] also shared this middle name. When Ian was sixteen, Beer persuaded his brother to sign a document promising not to use “Stafford” as part of his name because Beer “wanted the ‘copyright’ of [the name] Stafford Beer.”<ref name=Pickering>{{cite book|last1=Pickering|first1=Andrew|title=The cybernetic brain: sketches of another future|date=2011|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0226667904|edition=Pbk.}}</ref>

===United Steel===
In 1956 he joined [[United Steel Companies|United Steel]] and persuaded the management to fund an operational research group, the Department of Operations Research and Cybernetics, which he headed. This was based in Cybor House, and they installed a [[Ferranti Pegasus]] computer, the first in the world dedicated to management cybernetics.<ref name=Cabezas>{{cite web|last1=Cabezas|first1=Guido|title=Stafford's Curriculum Vitae|url=http://www.oocities.org/gicabezas/Beer.html|website=Guido Cabezas Fuentealba|publisher=Universidad del BioBio|access-date=18 August 2015}}</ref>

===SIGMA===
In 1961 he left United Steel to start an operational research consultancy in partnership with [[Roger Eddison]] called [[Sigma_(operations_research)|SIGMA]] (Science in General Management). Beer left SIGMA in 1966 to work for a SIGMA client, the [[IPC Media|International Publishing Corporation]] (IPC). He left IPC in 1970 to work as an independent consultant, focusing on his growing interest in social systems.{{citation needed|date=August 2015}}

===Cybersyn===
[[File:CyberSyn-render-106.png|250px|thumb|[[Project Cybersyn]] was an early form of computational [[economic planning]].]]
[[File:Portrait of Leon Trotsky.jpg|200x200px|thumb|left|Leon Trotsky’s critique of the [[Soviet Union]] influenced Beer’s shifting political views and the design of the Cybersyn model]]

In mid-1971, Beer was approached by [[Fernando Flores]], then a high-ranking member of the Chilean Production Development Corporation ([[CORFO]]) in the newly elected [[Chile under Allende|socialist government]] of [[Salvador Allende]], for advice on applying his cybernetic theories to the management of the state-run sector of the [[economy of Chile|Chilean economy]].<ref>Third Richard Goodman Memorial Lecture, [[Brighton Polytechnic]], [[Moulsecoomb]], [[Brighton]] 14 February 1973.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Beer|first=Stafford|date=1973-02-14|title=Fanfare for Effective Freedom: Cybernetic Praxis in Government by Stafford Beer|url=http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/cybernetics/Platform/platform.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180503180805/http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/cybernetics/Platform/platform.pdf|archive-date=2018-05-03|url-status=live|access-date=2021-07-02|website=evergreen.edu}}</ref>

This led to Beer's involvement in the never-completed [[Cybersyn]] project, which aimed to use computers and a [[telex]]-based communication network to allow the government to maximise production while preserving the autonomy of workers and lower management.

Beer also was reported to have read and been influenced by [[Leon Trotsky]]'s critique of the [[nomenklatura|Soviet bureaucracy]].<ref>"Beer also read Trotsky and found inspiration in Trotsky's critique of the Soviet bureaucracy".{{cite book |last1=Medina |first1=Eden |title=Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52596-1 |page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBC3AgAAQBAJ&dq=Stafford+beer+Trotsky&pg=PA292 |language=en}}</ref> According to another senior member of the Cybersyn team, Herman Schwember, Beer's political background and readings completely derived from works written by Trotsky and [[Trotskyists]]. Schwember himself disapproved of Trotsky's approach.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Medina |first1=Eden |title=Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile |date=10 January 2014 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52596-1 |page=292 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VBC3AgAAQBAJ&dq=Stafford+beer+Trotsky&pg=PA292 |language=en}}</ref>  

Although Cybersyn was abandoned after Allende's death during the [[Augusto Pinochet|Pinochet]] [[Chilean coup of 1973|coup]] in 1973, Beer continued to work in the Americas, consulting for the governments of [[Canada]], [[Mexico]], [[Uruguay]] and [[Venezuela]].

===Later activity===
{{unreferenced section|date=August 2015}}
In the mid-1970s, Beer moved to mid-[[Wales]] where he lived in an almost austere style, developing strong interests in poetry and art. In the 1980s he established a second home on the west side of downtown [[Toronto]] and lived part of the year in both residences. He was a visiting professor at almost 30 universities and received an earned higher doctorate (DSc) from the [[University of Sunderland]] and honorary doctorates from the [[University of Leeds]], the [[University of St. Gallen]], and the [[University of Valladolid]]. He was president of the World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics.

===Falcondale Collection===
[[File:Falcondale Mansion Hotel - geograph.org.uk - 714659.jpg|thumb|[[Falcondale House]]]]
In July 1994 Beer ran a residential course at the [[Falcondale House|Falcondale Hotel]] in [[Lampeter]]. Nine sessions were recorded as a video learning resource, and are collectively known as the Falcondale collection. They are available [http://opendata.ljmu.ac.uk/6/ online] at the Data Repository of [[Liverpool John Moores University]].<ref name="ljmu">{{cite web |title=Stafford Beer: The Falcondale Collection |url=http://opendata.ljmu.ac.uk/6/ |website=opendata.ljmu.ac.uk |publisher=Liverpool John Moores University |access-date=26 November 2019 |language=en |date=December 1994}}</ref> The sessions covered art, science and philosophy as well as the practical application of cybernetics in society, government, community, management and business. Transcripts were made of the discussions and are also available from the same repository.<ref name="ljmu"/>

===Family life===
He was married twice, in 1947 to Cynthia Hannaway, and in 1968 to Sallie Steadman. His partner for the last twenty years of his life was [[Allenna Leonard]], a fellow cybernetician. Beer had five sons and two daughters, one of whom is Vanilla Beer, an artist and essayist.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}}