--- title: "Pure VSM — Contents" description: "Pure VSM — the imported source set: Beer's model in his own words (Draft 0.8), part by part, with a page for each of its twenty-seven chapters. Draft, not…" url: "https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/contents" modified: "2026-11-12T15:26:25.985Z" language: "en" site: "Cybernetic Futures" --- # Pure VSM — the manuscript, part by part The first of the wiki's two imported source sets: *Pure VSM*, a statement of Beer's model in his own words (Draft 0.8, 2026-09-23) — **not project canon**. [Overview](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/overview) carries the synthesis and the caveats; this page carries the structure: five parts holding twenty-seven chapters, and the appendix. Each part page holds the part's own summary, Beer's words for the part, the concepts it introduces and its open points; each chapter page states that chapter's argument, with its quotations and locators. - **[Part I — Foundations: Beer's cybernetics](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-01-foundations)** — the part page, with its 3 chapters listed - [Ch 1 — What cybernetics is for Beer](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-01-foundations/ch01-what-cybernetics-is-for-beer) - [Ch 2 — Variety and regulation](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-01-foundations/ch02-variety-and-regulation) - [Ch 3 — The rules of the viable system](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-01-foundations/ch03-the-rules-of-the-viable-system) - **[Part II — The Viable System Model](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model)** — the part page, with its 12 chapters listed - [Ch 4 — The origin of the model: the neurophysiological argument in Brain of the Firm](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch04-the-origin-of-the-model) - [Ch 5 — Viability, identity and autonomy](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch05-viability-identity-and-autonomy) - [Ch 6 — Recursion](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch06-recursion) - [Ch 7 — System One: the operations and their embedment](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch07-system-one) - [Ch 8 — System Two: anti-oscillation](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch08-system-two) - [Ch 9 — System Three and Three*: inside-and-now, the resource bargain, audit](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch09-system-three-and-three) - [Ch 10 — System Four: outside-and-then, the model of the self, the operations room](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch10-system-four) - [Ch 11 — System Five: closure, identity, the Three–Four homeostat](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch11-system-five) - [Ch 12 — Channels, transduction and the algedonic signal](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch12-channels-transduction-and-the-algedonic-signal) - [Ch 13 — Cohesion across recursions: the Law of Cohesion](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch13-cohesion-across-recursions) - [Ch 14 — Diagnosis: the method of Diagnosing the System for Organizations](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch14-diagnosis) - [Ch 15 — Pathologies of viable systems](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-02-the-viable-system-model/ch15-pathologies-of-viable-systems) - **[Part III — Applications and politics](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-03-applications-and-politics)** — the part page, with its 4 chapters listed - [Ch 16 — Chile 1971–73: Cybersyn, Cyberstride, the operations room](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-03-applications-and-politics/ch16-chile-1971-73) - [Ch 17 — Freedom as a design problem](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-03-applications-and-politics/ch17-freedom-as-a-design-problem) - [Ch 18 — Institutions, metasystems and change (Platform for Change)](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-03-applications-and-politics/ch18-institutions-metasystems-and-change) - [Ch 19 — Planning that has to abort](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-03-applications-and-politics/ch19-planning-that-has-to-abort) - **[Part IV — Team Syntegrity](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-04-team-syntegrity)** — the part page, with its 4 chapters listed - [Ch 20 — The problem: non-hierarchical democracy in groups](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-04-team-syntegrity/ch20-the-problem) - [Ch 21 — The icosahedron as organisational form](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-04-team-syntegrity/ch21-the-icosahedron-as-organisational-form) - [Ch 22 — Protocol, infoset, reverberation](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-04-team-syntegrity/ch22-protocol-infoset-reverberation) - [Ch 23 — Syntegrity and the VSM](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-04-team-syntegrity/ch23-syntegrity-and-the-vsm) - **[Part V — Method and epistemology](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-05-method-and-epistemology)** — the part page, with its 4 chapters listed - [Ch 24 — Operational research, models and homomorphism (Decision and Control)](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-05-method-and-epistemology/ch24-operational-research-models-and-homomorphism) - [Ch 25 — Systems as an act of recognition: observer, variety, control](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-05-method-and-epistemology/ch25-systems-as-an-act-of-recognition) - [Ch 26 — Knowledge of knowing: the essays in Think Before You Think](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-05-method-and-epistemology/ch26-knowledge-of-knowing) - [Ch 27 — Management Science (1967): models, control and the viable governor](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/part-05-method-and-epistemology/ch27-management-science) - **[Appendix — chronology, textual notes, attributed terms](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/pure-vsm-appendix)** — Beer's book chronology, the formulations that differ with locators, and terms he attributes to others ## Related - [Overview](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/overview) — the synthesis of this source set - [Bibliography — sources used by the Pure VSM project](https://wiki.cybernetic-futures.org/pure-vsm/bibliography) — the Beer texts the locators point into