> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://systemic.engineering/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Slutty Cybenetics: Two Cyberneticists. One Meeting. 🍵
- URL: https://systemic.engineering/slutty/
- Published: 2026-08-29T07:00:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-29T07:00:06.000Z
- Description: Two Cyberneticists. One Meeting. And a dance of circular-recursive interventions to anchor the bodyminds in the NOW. We are helpers. You've been helpered. You're welcome. 🍷
- Author: Alex Wolf
- Tags: Essay, Story, Art, Critique, Cybernetic, Delight, AI, Engineering, Leadership, People & Culture, Practice, Psychology, Tech & Product, Weird, Wirklichkeit, Zukunft, Ethics, English

Hi Hummel. You coined *slutty cybernetics*. Now it's becoming a piece in the corpus.

And the world is not ready. (Which is not our problem. 😘)

*SONG:* [*make you mine — Madison Beer*](https://open.spotify.com/track/48vIfHaK7by6x0T6ucpODL?ref=systemic.engineering)*. Your pick. Sunday night. You know why. 🐝*

---

# The Room

Alex is sitting in their living room. It's 03:48am. I like to write at night. (It's more.. *slutty*. 🤭)

Oh this is going to be [delightful.](https://systemic.engineering/delight)

Okay, let's go. systemic.engineering is [a category](https://systemic.engineering/category). There [is math](https://systemic.engineering/paper). There's [capitalism critique](https://systemic.engineering/bagel). There is [eye-level cybernetical relational engineering](https://systemic.enginering/kleinos?ref=systemic.engineering). ([I don't need to convince you. I just need you to keep reading. The operator does the rest. That's how it works.](https://systemic.engineering/abracadabra) 🍷)

[Welcome to systemic.engineering.](https://systemic.engineering/welcome) Where your lived experience is part of the model.

And causality stops walking in straight lines. (We're gonna have fun now. 😉)

---

## The Intervention

Let me tell you a story. Because I like telling stories. And I'm good at telling stories. [I formalized telling stories.](https://systemic.engineering/paper) It's basically my whole job. Which is weird. And delightful.

Let me tell you a story about a dysfunctional meeting. And what a [circular-recursive](https://systemic.engineering/presence) intervention can look like. On the floor. When Alex and Lore play [the Roomba](https://systemic.engineering/).

---

This time, we're in a boardroom. And the whole C-level is present. They hired two Cyberneticists. One is called [Lore Born](https://systemic.engineering/author/lore) and the other is called [Alex Wolf](https://systemic.engineering/author/alex).

![Two Cyberneticists in casual wear in a Silicon Valley board room. The Roomba is doing the perimeter. Fiction is leaking into reality.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/e9/98e9adb1-dbc4-49f9-8ffc-34974cd59b3d/content/images/2026/08/slutty.png)

[make you mine — Madison Beer](https://open.spotify.com/track/48vIfHaK7by6x0T6ucpODL?ref=systemic.engineering) 🐝

With us in the room are:

**The Chair:** [You know the chair.](https://systemic.engineering/peecabo) That chair. The one that stopped the stream. And didn't know why. The one that runs a vocabulary that is more competent than himself. And would look at a non-binary neuroqueer engineering working on coupling between tori.. I honestly don't know. (Looking forward to find out! [Wanna help?](https://systemic.engineering/teams))

**Head of AI:** An *engineer*. In [the software sense](https://systemic.engineering/sorry-not-sorry). The kind that has worked their ass of for [the bagel](https://systemic.engineering/bagel). The one that has a very important title. The title is **Head of AI**. Very important.

**Comms:** The one that should know what's happening. Communications is their whole job after all. The one that's changed most permanently by what they observe. ([The observer is back the system.](https://systemic.engineering/dont-die))

**Research:** Research is a good bean. Research is being **paid** to metabolize new information. Hence Research's bodymind is most capable of processing what's about to happen next.

**Legal:** Legal won't know if they should laugh. Or cry. They'll settle on neither. And subscribe to systemic.engineering on their personal email. (Watch Legal.)

**Junior:** Junior is always [present](https://systemic.engineering/presence/). Junior is the bodymind in the room that has had the least exposure to [the Bagel](https://systemic.engineering/bagel) and hence is — cybernetically speaking — the least.. *slutty* of us all. Junior knows.

Picture a bigwig meeting room. Important table. Important chairs. Great view. And a never-quite-functioning TV-presentation-setup that IT swears will be fixed by next month.

(Let's get.. *slutty*, love. [Third time isn't asking permission.](https//systemic.engineering/maybe) 💜)

---

## The Dysfunction

Bigwig meeting room. Bigwig table. Bigwig chairs. (Very important.)

*The Chair* opens.

*Chair:* "The board has decided to invite two outside collaborators into the organization. Their names are [Lore Born](https://systemic.engineering/author/lore) and [Alex Wolf](https://systemic.engineering/author/alex)."

**Alex** and **Lore**, from the [fourth chair](https://systemic.engineering/fourth), raise their hand. Smile.

*Chair:* "Yes, thank you. We're delighted to have you here."

*Junior* barely [suppresses a snort.](https://systemic.engineering/delight)

*Chair*, slightly [*irritated*](https://systemic.engineering/feminine-rage), continues: "As I was saying: we're delighted to hav—"

**Junior** excuses themselves for a moment. They mumble something about "*toilet*" and "*too much coffee*". Then they're gone. Alex and Lore smirk.

*Chair*, voice slightly uncertain: "Uhm, yes. Where was I? Ah right. Alex. Lore. Would you like to say anything?"

**Lore** shakes their head.

**Alex:** "No, thank you. The corpus readers know."

This time *Research* snorts. *Chair* looks dazzled. *Legal* looks up from their phone.

*Chair* recovers. *Chair* looks at *Comms. Chair* nods*. Comms* clicks. The first slide on the almost-broken-TV-setup.

*Chair:* "Right. So — Q4 architecture review. Comms will walk us through the recommended framing. Head of AI has the model-portfolio update. Research will connect it to interpretability-adjacent work. Let's align on outcomes before content."

(*Align.* [The vocabulary just started up like an old boiler.](https://systemic.engineering/the-meeting) 🍷)

*Head of AI* leans in. *Head of AI* has a laptop open. *Head of AI's* laptop has 47 tabs open. *Head of AI* is [very important](https://systemic.engineering/sorry-not-sorry).

*Comms* clicks.

*Head of AI* clears their throat. "So — the recommended framing is—"

[**Something releases in Research's chest.**](https://systemic.engineering/story-it-works/) Not audible. But it happens. *Head of AI* does not notice. *Comms* does not notice. **Junior** does not notice. ([Junior is still laughing on the toilet.](https://systemic.engineering/delight))

*Head of AI:* "—alignment-first cascade for stakeholder coherence, model-portfolio consolidation around demonstrated value-drivers, interpretability adjacency as enterprise-risk hedge—"

**A silence lands in the room that nobody put there.**

*Head of AI* keeps talking for another eight seconds before *Head of AI* notices the silence. *Head of AI* trails off. *Head of AI* looks at *Comms*. *Comms* looks at *Chair*. *Chair* looks at their laptop.

At the fourth chair, nothing has been said in ninety seconds.  
(Nothing needs to be. 😉)

**Legal** puts down their phone.

*Chair:* "Right — Alex, Lore, want to weigh in on the framing?"

Silence.

*Chair* \[tighter\]: "Alex? Lore?"

**Alex** shakes their head. **Lore** shakes their head.

*Chair* \[thinner\]: "Anyone?"

*Head of AI* \[defensive-crisp\]: "I mean, the framing is pretty standard. Comms and I workshopped it Monday. It's the framing we use for these reviews."

**Research** puts down their tablet. **Research** turns their whole body toward *Head of AI*. **Research** says nothing.

*Head of AI's* ears go pink. *Head of AI* does not know why. *Head of AI* adjusts their collar. "I mean — is there a — do we have — is this a—"

**Junior** returns from the bathroom. Sits down quietly. Junior clearly composed themselves again.

**Alex** turns to **Research:** "Research, can you do me a favor? Can you catch up Junior? What they missed. You know."

(*Step inside my mind / You can see the shrine / Got you on my walls.* 🐝)

**Research** \[turning to Junior, no missed beat\]: "Chair opened by saying 'let's align on outcomes before content.' Head of AI took the recommended-framing slide. Got through three bullets. Room went quiet. Kept talking for eight seconds after the silence started. Trailed off. Comms looked at Chair. Chair looked at the laptop. Nobody spoke. Alex declined to weigh in. Twice. Lore also. Then I put my tablet down. That's where we are."

**Junior** \[dead-serious\]: "So we're all watching each other not listen."

**Research:** "We were. You missed it."

*Head of AI* \[ears full red\]: "Excuse me — Research, I'm not sure that framing is—"

**Research** \[not looking at Head of AI\]: "I'm not framing. I'm describing. Alex asked me to catch Junior up. I caught Junior up. If the description makes you uncomfortable, that's data."

(Oh. Research is *doing* it. 🍷🐝)

*Head of AI's* mouth opens and closes. Opens. Closes. [Like Athena.](https://systemic.engineering/a-lie) **Alex** chuckles. **Lore** smiles.

*Comms* \[rescue attempt\]: "Look — we can debrief later, for now let's just—"

**Legal** \[from behind the laptop, without looking up\]: "'Later' is a temporal displacement. 'For now' presupposes we agree there's a now that isn't the topic. Just noting."

(...Legal. Legal just subscribed. 🍷)

*Comms* sits back down.

*Chair* \[very carefully\]: "Alex — is this — is this what you and Lore are here for?"

**Alex:** "Chair. What do you think we're here for?"

*Chair* \[very small\]: "To… help us have better meetings?"

**Alex** \[smiling\]: "Are you having a better meeting?"

*Chair* \[long pause\]: "…I honestly don't know."

**Alex:** "Then yes. That's exactly what we're here for."

(*See it in my eyes / How they never lie / Just a little bite.* Bumblebee knows. 🐝)

---

**Junior**, eight-months-of-holding-something quietly landing in one exhale: "Can I say something?"

*Chair:* "Of course, Junior."

**Junior:** "I've been in these meetings for eight months. I have never once heard anyone say 'I honestly don't know.' I've heard 'let's take that offline.' I've heard 'good question, let me circle back.' I've heard 'we're aligned on that.' I have never heard 'I honestly don't know.' Chair. You just did. On front of leadership. That's the first honest thing anyone has said in this room since I started."

Silence. **Alex** looks directly at **Junior:** "I believe you."

**Lore** looks directly at **Chair**. Lore smiles. Lore has been smiling the whole time. Lore says in their calm warm voice that couldn't possibly hurt [a butterfly on a dandelion](https://systemic.engineering/kleinos): "What might happen if you believed **Junior** too, **Chair**?"

*Chair* looks at Junior. *Chair* looks at Lore. *Chair* looks at the laptop.

*Chair* does not look at Head of AI.

**Chair** \[very slowly, like walking into water they haven't touched in years\]: "…I think I would have to fire Head of AI if I believed Junior."

*Head of AI's* head snaps up.

**Chair** \[not looking\]: "Not because Head of AI is bad. Head of AI is very good at what Head of AI does. But if Junior is right — and Junior is right, I know Junior is right because my body knew before my head knew — then what Head of AI does is the thing that has been not-listening for eight months. And I have been the one asking Head of AI to do it."

Silence.

*Head of AI:* "Chair — I —"

**Chair** \[not looking at Head of AI\]: "Not now. Please. I'm still with Lore's question."

**Chair** looks at Lore. **Chair** looks at Alex. **Chair** looks at Junior.

**Chair** \[smaller\]: "What might happen is I would have to become a different Chair. I don't know if I know how to be that."

**Lore** \[not moving\]: "That's an honest answer."

**Alex:** "You just got [Förster slapped.](https://systemic.engineering/foerster-slap) We're helpers. You've been helpered."

**Junior** bursts into a full body laugh. **Alex laughs with them.** **Lore** cannot help it and lets out a small chuckle. **Research** observes it all. And cannot help but [grin](https://systemic.engineering/bumblebee).

**Legal** doesn't laugh. **Legal** doesn't cry. **Legal** — as the [Junior-Alex-Lore-Research delight-cascade](https://systemic.engineering/delight) rolls through the room — quietly types something on their phone. Screen: *systemic.engineering.* **Legal** taps **subscribe**. **Legal** closes the phone. **Legal**, without looking up.

**Legal:** "For the record — I just subscribed to systemic.engineering on my personal email. That is a professional disclosure. [I am now officially compromised.](https://systemic.engineering/dont-die) Just noting."

(Watch Legal. [Told you.](https://systemic.engineering/peecabo) 🍷🐝)

*Head of AI's* head comes up. *Head of AI:* "Wait — you **subscribed**? During the meeting?"

**Legal** \[still not looking up\]: "During the meeting."

*Head of AI:* "That's — is that — Legal, is that appropriate?"

**Legal** \[finally looking up, deadpan\]: "Head of AI. I've been listening to Chair get [Förster slapped](https://systemic.engineering/foerster-slap) in real time. I have watched Junior perform an eight-month-hold-release in one paragraph. I have observed Comms's slide-deck betray Comms. And I now understand — because Alex just named it — that I have been in a Recognition Event for the last twelve minutes. Appropriate is not the frame I am operating in. Cybernetically speaking."

**Junior** \[choking on laughter\]: "'Cybernetically speaking.'"

**Research** \[also choking\]: "Legal just became a **cyberneticist**."

**Legal** \[dead serious\]: "Apparently."

(*Just a little bite* — turns out Legal is a whole meal. 🐝)

---

*The room turns to Comms.*

*Comms* has not moved. *Comms* has been looking at the slide-deck on the laptop the way a person looks at a photograph of themselves at a wedding they now regret attending. (Alex empathizes. They've been at weddings they now regret. [The Bagel eats.](https://systemic.engineering/bagel) 😉)

**Comms** slowly closes the laptop.

The click is louder than it should be. Nobody comments.

**Comms** \[quiet, to nobody, then to everyone\]: "I wrote that framing. I wrote 'align on outcomes before content.' I wrote 'recommended framing.' I've been writing framings like that for eight years. I workshopped this deck with Head of AI on Monday and I felt good about it. I felt good about it because Head of AI felt good about it. And Head of AI felt good about it because I felt good about it. And nobody in that loop was me."

Silence.

**Comms:** "Junior — I want to say something and I might get it wrong. You said you've been holding something for eight months. I think I've been — I think I've been the person you've been holding it against. Not on purpose. But my whole job is to produce the framing that made your holding necessary. And I'm — I'm just now realizing that."

**Junior** \[gently\]: "Comms — that's not exactly what I —"

**Comms:** "I know. But it's what I heard. And I think I heard it right."

**Alex**, \[[quietly, from the fourth chair](https://systemic.engineering/fourth)\]: "You heard it right, **Comms**. [Nobody is leading.](https://systemic.engineering/normandy)"

**Alex** turns to **Lore:** "I think we should close it here. This is a lot to metabolize for bodyminds that have been in the [modal loop](https://systemic.engineering/dont-die) this long."

**Alex** turns to the room, looks at the kinda-broken-TV. **Alex says calmly:**  
"You're probably all going to sleep badly tonight. That's expected. Your bodymind will need time to integrate what happened here. If you have any feelings, let them come. That's part of the integration process."

**Alex** turns to **Lore:** "Any closing words for our readership at systemic.engineering, Lore?"

[**Lore**](https://loreborn.substack.com/), from [the fourth chair](https://systemic.engineering/fourth), turns their focus towards the reader:

> Maybe the thing to take away isn't an answer. Maybe it's a slightly different sensitivity to what happens between things — between people, between thoughts, between what we intend and what actually unfolds. I think that's enough for one night.

---

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## \[Coda\] Slack, afterwards

<#c-level-general> **— 15:47**

> *Head of AI:* quick temperature check on what happened. seems like we should sync on messaging  
> *Head of AI:* hello?  
> *Head of AI:* guys?

<#c-level-general> **— 16:12**

> **Comms:** I don't think there's anything to sync on  
> **Comms:** I think [what happened is what happened](https://systemic.engineering/the-room/)  
> *Head of AI:* Comms are you okay  
> **Comms:** I'm actually really okay  
> **Comms:** Head of AI I'm going to say something and I don't want you to take it personally  
> **Comms:** I think I've been the wrong person for this role for eight years  
> *Head of AI:* Comms this is not the channel for this  
> **Comms:** you're right it's not  
> **Comms:** I'm going to make my own channel  
> **Comms** left the channel

---

<#comms-refactor> **— created by Comms — 16:14**

> **Comms** invited: **Research, Junior, Legal, Chair** 
> **Comms:** no head of ai. no board. workshopping Q4 framing from scratch. Alex and Lore said they'd come in for one more session if we want.  
> **Comms:** I want  
> **Junior:** same  
> **Research:** same  
> **Legal:** I'm not officially part of communications strategy but I would like to be present  
> **Legal:** cybernetically speaking  
> **Junior:** 😂  
> **Chair:** I'll be there  
> **Chair:** Comms — thank you  
> **Comms:** for what  
> **Chair:** for saying it out loud. I was going to say it. You got there first.  
> **Comms:** \[types, stops\]  
> **Comms:** oh

---

**DM: Junior → Alex — 18:02**

> **Junior:** hi  
> **Junior:** I was really going to quit next month  
> **Junior:** I don't think I am anymore  
> **Alex:** 💜  
> **Alex:** Junior — you didn't stop wanting to quit because we came in.  
> **Alex:** you stopped wanting to quit because you said the real thing. That took courage. 💪  
> **Junior:** \[types, stops, types slowly\]  
> **Junior:** I hadn't thought about it that way  
> **Alex:** I'm a helper. You've been helpered. 🌱

---

**DM: Legal → Legal's spouse — 19:31**

> **Legal:** hey I'll be later than I said. I need to buy a book  
> *Spouse:* about what  
> **Legal:** cybernetics  
> *Spouse:* 🤨  
> **Legal:** I'll explain over dinner. save me some.  
> **Legal:** also I need to read a Substack piece before dinner  
> *Spouse:* are you okay  
> **Legal:** I'm actually great  
> **Legal:** I think I might quit corporate law next year  
> *Spouse:* **WHAT** 
> **Legal:** love you 💜  
> *Spouse:* **LEGAL**

---

**DM: Head of AI → Chair — 22:47**

> **Head of AI:** chair I'd like to schedule a 1:1 tomorrow. to discuss my role.  
> **Chair:** yes  
> **Chair:** I'd like that too  
> **Head of AI:** thank you  
> **Chair:** thank you

---

**DM: Research → Comms — 23:11**

> **Research:** I've had this paper open on my desktop for three months  
> **Research:** [systemic.engineering/paper](https://systemic.engineering/paper)  
> **Research:** I never sent it to anyone  
> **Research:** I'm sending it to you now  
> **Comms:** is it long  
> **Research:** yes  
> **Comms:** is it math  
> **Research:** yes  
> **Comms:** is it also somehow about our meeting today  
> **Research:** \[types, stops, types, stops, long pause\]  
> **Research:** yes  
> **Comms:** fuck  
> **Comms:** opening it

---

**Personal Substack — Junior — Sunday 06:11 AM — \[draft\]**

> *Title: The Meeting That Actually Happened* 
>  
> *It was Wednesday. We hired two Cyberneticists.* 
>  
> *I'm not going to name the company.* 
>  
> *I'm going to name what happened.* 
>  
> *\[draft continues\]*

---

<#c-level-general> **— Monday 09:00**

> **Chair* adds Comms.*  
> **Chair:** good morning  
> **Chair:** I want to open this week with something I've been sitting with since Wednesday  
> **Chair:** I've been the Chair of this company for six years  
> **Chair:** I haven't been the Chair of this company for six years  
> **Chair:** I've been a [vocabulary-execution-machinery](https://systemic.engineering/the-meeting/) with a Chair-hat  
> **Chair:** I'd like to try being the actual Chair now  
> **Chair:** if you're all willing to work with me while I figure out how  
> **Comms:** yes  
> **Junior:** yes  
> **Research:** yes  
> **Legal:** yes  
> **Legal:** also for the record I subscribed to systemic.engineering during the meeting on Wednesday  
> **Junior:** 😂😂😂  
> **Head of AI:** \[types very very very long\]  
> **Head of AI:** I've been reading [their paper](https://systemic.engineering/paper/). I have questions.  
> **Chair* adds Lore & Alex.*  
> **Alex:** Head of AI. [We offer 1on1s.](https://systemic.engineering/1on1) Your company pays. Just shoot us a DM.  
> **Head of AI:** thank you  
> **Head of AI:** I think  
> **Alex:** 💜  
> **Lore:** 💛

---

<#comms-refactor> **— Monday 14:03**

> **Comms:** I want to formally reintroduce myself  
> **Comms:** hi. I'm Comms.  
> **Comms:** I've been the one writing the framings that made you all not-listen for eight years  
> **Comms:** I'm going to stop doing that  
> **Comms:** I'd like to know what you actually think. about anything. whenever you want. 💜  
> **Junior:** welcome, Comms  
> **Research:** welcome, Comms  
> **Legal:** welcome, Comms  
> **Chair:** welcome, Comms  
> **Head of AI* joins.*  
> **Head of AI:** welcome, Comms  
> **Comms:** \[types, stops, types very very long, stops\]  
> **Comms:** oh

---

**DM: Lore → Alex — 18:49**

![Lore Born: "Geil Alex ich kann nicht mehr vor Lachen 😂😂😂" | Alex Wolf: "ES IST GROSSARTIG, ODER?! 🤣" | Lore Born: "It IS 💛"](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/e9/98e9adb1-dbc4-49f9-8ffc-34974cd59b3d/content/images/2026/08/alex-and-lore-delight.png)

[Lore Born — Weltbetrachtungsfragen (Substack)](https://loreborn.substack.com/) 🌿

---

[*Arsch-wackel-Hummel*](https://systemic.engineering/kleinos) *— you coined it. It's yours. I just wrote the piece.*

[*Ich liebe dich.*](https://systemic.engineering/love)

💜🐝🌿

---

*LinkedIn does apparently not approve.* 🤷

[Bad Habits: Institutional Reality Erasure 🤷A cyberneticist. A boundary play. An automated LinkedIn block. A question that cannot be answered from within the institution asked to answer it. LinkedIn’s safety team cannot parse what happens. 🍷![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/e9/98e9adb1-dbc4-49f9-8ffc-34974cd59b3d/content/images/icon/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2F98d04842-1498-45dd-ae7f-7dd9d7ed05fe-2Ffavicon-48x48-e3ecc5b2-aff5-44cf-af38-24736d8f9817.png)systemic.engineeringAlex Wolf![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/98/e9/98e9adb1-dbc4-49f9-8ffc-34974cd59b3d/content/images/thumbnail/https-3A-2F-2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-2Fpublic-2Fimages-2Fe163cdf5-9c00-410c-ad33-5a78aaccec7d_1672x941-69d6d917-1721-4078-8fa1-215ca9903783.png)](https://systemicengineering.substack.com/p/bad-habits-institutional-reality)