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The Corbett Report Podcast

The Purpose Of a System Is What It Does

The Corbett Report Podcast

The Corbett Report

Politics, News

4.91K Ratings

🗓️ 21 April 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The purpose of a system is what it does. But what does this deceptively simply aphorism mean? And how can we use it to explain the Iran war and every other important systemic event in the world? Good questions. Let's answer them!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Have you ever heard the phrase, the purpose of a system is what it does? Do you know the origin of this

0:06.6

phrase? Do you know its meaning? And do you know how it can be used to explain current events?

0:12.8

If so, great. Have a great day. I have nothing to teach you. If not, you're in luck. I'm going to

0:19.0

tell you about this phrase, where it comes from, what it means,

0:22.4

and how to use it. And by the end of today's episode, you're going to understand how the purpose

0:28.2

of a system is what it does can be used to explain current events, including the Iran War.

0:35.1

Are you ready? Let's dig in.

0:45.3

Music including the Iran War. Are you ready? Let's dig in. You're listening to The Corbett Report. The important thing to realize about systems is how they are controlled.

1:06.0

And we must get rid of any notion straight away that control is something imposed on the system from outside.

1:11.6

It has to be built into it.

1:13.6

Now you saw me operate this governor just now and noticed how the engine slowed down.

1:18.6

Let's see how the mechanism works.

1:21.6

Suppose the engine is racing, then the governor flies open like that.

1:25.6

You see it lifting here, transmitting the message along here,

1:30.3

lifting that cam up here, and then shutting off a valve there. That is built into the system.

1:37.0

It's called feedback, and feedback is ubiquitous in control system.

1:42.3

Welcome back, friends. Welcome back to another edition of The Corbett Report.

1:45.6

I'm James Corbett of Corbett Report.com coming to you, as always, from the sunny

1:49.4

climbs of Western Japan here in April of 2006.

1:52.8

With episode 499 of the Corbett Report podcast, The Purpose of a System is what it does.

2:01.1

So who was that man in that intriguing little clip that we just saw?

2:05.8

Well, that was Stafford Beer.

...

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