Early life Anthony Stafford Beer was born in
Fulham, London, on 25 September 1926. His father was William John Beer, chief statistician at
Lloyd's Register of Shipping, who shared a birthday with Stafford's mother, Doris Ethel Beer. At the age of 17 Stafford was expelled from
Whitgift School. He enrolled in
philosophy at
University College London before enlisting in the
British Army as a
gunner in the
Royal Artillery in 1944, during the
Second World War. He soon received
commissions, first in the
Royal Fusiliers, and then as a
company commander in the
9th Gurkha Rifles. Beer served in the
British Raj 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. Beer did not use his given first name, "Anthony", instead preferring his middle name, "Stafford". His younger brother,
Ian, also shared this middle name. When Ian was sixteen, Beer persuaded him to sign a document promising not to use "Stafford" as part of his name because Beer "wanted the ‘copyright’ of [the name] Stafford Beer."
United Steel In 1956 he joined
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.
SIGMA In 1961 he left United Steel to start an operational research consultancy in partnership with
Roger Eddison called
SIGMA (Science in General Management). Beer left SIGMA in 1966 to work for a SIGMA client, the
International Publishing Corporation (IPC). He left IPC in 1970 to work as an independent consultant, focusing on his growing interest in social systems. His engagement in Latin America began in the 1960s through SIGMA, which worked on industrial optimisation projects in Chile and unsuccessfully explored expansion into other regional markets.
Cybersyn was an early form of computational
economic planning. '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
socialist government of
Salvador Allende, for advice on applying his cybernetic theories to the management of the state-run sector of the
Chilean economy. 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
Soviet bureaucracy. According to
Herman Schwember (1939-2008), another senior member of the Cybersyn team, former Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Vice-Rector of the Catholic University of Chile, later exiled to London, Beer's political background and readings completely derived from works written by Trotsky and
Trotskyists. Schwember himself disapproved of Trotsky's approach. Although Cybersyn was abandoned after Allende's death during the
Pinochet coup in 1973, Beer continued to work in the Americas, consulting for the governments of
Canada,
Mexico,
Uruguay and
Venezuela. Beer was particularly involved in the 1980s and 1990s on various governmental cybernetic projects, including Uruguay's successful URUCIB executive information system (1986–1988), Colombia's application of the
Viable System Model to public sector reform (1990s–2000s) and unsuccessful ventures in Mexico and Venezuela that were undermined by corruption and political instability.
Later activity In the mid-1970s he moved to
Mid Wales, where he lived an almost austere lifestyle, developing strong interests in poetry and art. In the 1980s he established a second home on the west side of downtown
Toronto. 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 In July 1994 Beer ran a residential course at
Falcondale House in
Lampeter. Nine sessions were recorded as a video learning resource, and are collectively known as the Falcondale collection. They are available online at the Data Repository of
Liverpool John Moores University. 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. ==Work==