All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (1999) [2 0f 3]

In this episode of this documentary series, the filmmaker turns his attention to how a mechanistic view of nature — specifically the idea of ecosystems as self-regulating systems — came to shape not only science and environmentalism but also broader cultural and political ideologies. Through his signature collage of archive footage, narration, and critical analysis, Curtis traces the origins and consequences of this vision, suggesting that it ultimately served to obscure power, suppress human agency, and promote a deeply misleading conception of both nature and society.

The central figure at the beginning of this story is the British ecologist Arthur Tansley, who coined the term “ecosystem” in 1935. Though Tansley originally intended the term to reflect a complex web of interrelated forces, later interpretations, particularly in post-war America, would reduce it to something far more rigid and mechanistic. By the 1960s and 70s, a growing number of scientists began to see ecosystems through the lens of cybernetics — the study of systems, feedback loops, and self-regulation, pioneered by Norbert Wiener. This reframing positioned nature as a kind of machine that maintained balance through constant internal correction, like a thermostat adjusting temperature. In this vision, all living things were part of a harmonious, self-sustaining order.

Curtis shows how this scientific model dovetailed neatly with the rise of systems thinking, which was increasingly applied to economics, politics, and society. It was embraced with particular enthusiasm by figures such as Jay Forrester, whose system dynamics models informed the influential Limits to Growth report commissioned by the Club of Rome. But Curtis is especially interested in how these ideas migrated from academia into popular culture. He examines how the belief in natural self-regulation found fertile ground in the countercultural movements of the 1960s and 70s, especially among American communes that sought to create decentralized, leaderless societies that would, like ecosystems, find a natural equilibrium.

Yet, as Curtis demonstrates, these idealistic communities often fell apart. Far from achieving harmony, they became dominated by invisible hierarchies or descended into dysfunction. The belief that systems — whether natural or social — would balance themselves without centralized control turned out to be a myth. In fact, real ecosystems, as later ecologists would show, are not stable and harmonious but dynamic and often chaotic, shaped by constant change, disruption, and conflict. Likewise, Curtis argues, human societies cannot escape the need for politics, leadership, and accountability — things that systems thinking tends to erase.

The episode’s critique is not just scientific but ideological. Curtis suggests that the widespread adoption of cybernetic metaphors led to a dangerous political complacency. If systems can regulate themselves, there is little need for intervention, reform, or struggle. This notion, when applied to society, has the effect of maintaining existing power structures under the guise of neutrality and balance. What appears to be freedom — the absence of imposed order — can in fact become a form of hidden control.

Stylistically, Curtis reinforces these ideas through his trademark editing techniques: juxtaposing eerie archival images with ironic music and voiceovers, creating a mood that is both haunting and reflective. The tone is not purely critical but mournful, as if lamenting a lost opportunity — the chance to build a genuinely democratic society, rejected in favor of a comforting, mechanistic dream.

In the end, Part 2 of All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace dismantles the seductive vision of nature as a self-correcting machine and warns against its application to human life. By tracing the lineage of these ideas from ecology to commune experiments to modern technological utopianism, Curtis offers a compelling argument: that the fantasy of balance and harmony, though deeply appealing, has served to obscure the messy, contested reality of both nature and politics. It is a vision, he suggests, that has not liberated us, but left us watched over — and perhaps trapped — by systems of our own making.