CYBERNETICS FORUM THE PUBLICATION OFTHEAMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS

FALL 1979 VOLUME IX NO. 3

A SPECIAL ISSUE HONORING DR. HEINZ VON FOERSTER ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RETIREMENT

IN THIS ISSUE:

Heinz Von Foerster: A Second Order Cybernetician, Stuart Umpleby...... 3

An Open Letter to Dr. Von Foerster, Stafford Beer ...... 13

The lmportance of Being Magie, Gordon Pask ...... 17

The Wholeness of the Unity: Conversations with Heinz Von Foerster, Humberto R. Maturana ...... 20

Creative Cybernetics, Lars LÖfgren ...... 27

With Heinz Von Foerster, Edwin Schlossberg ...... 28

Heinz Von Foerster's Gontributions to the Development of Cybernetics, Kenneth L. Wilson ...... 30

List of Publications of Heinz Von Foerster ...... 33

The Work of Visiting Cyberneticians in the Biological Computer Laboratory, Kenneth L. Wilson ...... 36

About the Autho ~$...... 40

© 1979 American Society for Cybernetics BOARD OF EDITORS

Editor Charles H. Dym Frederick Kile V.G. DROZIN Dym, Frank & Company Aid Assoe/ation for Lutherans Department of Physics 2511 Massachusetts Avenue, N. W. Appleton, Wl 54911 Buckne/1 University Washington, DC 20008 Lewisburg, PA 17837 Mark N. Ozer TECHNICAL EDITOR Gertrude Herrmann The George Washington University Kenneth W. Gaul School of Medicine and Conference Calendar Editor 111 0/in Science Building Health Seiences Buckne/1 University 1131 Unlversity Boulevard West, 12122 3000 Connecticut AvenueN. W. Lewisburg, PA 17837 Washington, DC 20008 Si/ver Spring, MD 20902 ASSOCIATE EDITORS Charles I. Bartfeld Doreen Ray Steg School of Business Administration, Harold K. Hughes Department of Human Behavior & The State University College American University Development, Potsdam, NY 13.767 Mass. & Nebraska Aves. N. W. Drexel University Washington, DC 20016 Philadelphia, PA 19104

N.A. Coulter, Jr. Department of Surgery Akira lshikawa Curriculum in Biomedical Graouate School of Business Paul Studer Engineering Administration School of Library and Information University of North Carolina Rufgers University Science, State University College School of Medicine 92 New Street of Arts and Sclence Chapel Hili, NC 27514 Newark, NJ 07102 Geneseo, NY 14454

OFF/CERS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNET/CS

PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT TREASURER Stuart Umpleby Doreen Steg Al Kreger The George Washington University SECRETARY OMBUDSMEN Washington, DC 20052 Roger Conant Klaus Krippendorff Rolf Wigand

TRUSTEES Stafford Beer Carl Hammer Daniel Howland Douglas Knight Heinz Von Foerster

PRINTED BY: DISTRIBUTED BY: Colonial Printing American Society West Market and 20th Street for Cybernetics Lewisburg, PA 17837 (717) 523-0702 American SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Society ASC Cybernetics Forum Journal of Cybernetlcs and Information Science Both Publications Domestic $35.00 per year Domestic $55.00 per year Domestic $80.00 per year for . Foreign $40.00 per year Forelgn $60.00 per year Forelgn $90.00 per year Cybzrnehcs Copyright © 1979 American Society for Cybernetics The American Society for Cybernetics

and its officers wish

Heinz Von Foerster continued success in the field of cybernetics

following his retirement from the Faculty of The University of lllinois

after many years of leadership in the

Biological Computer Laboratory. HEINZ VON FOERSTER Heinz Von Foerster, A Second Order Cybernetician

Stuart A. Umpleby The George Washington University Washington, DC 20052

lt is a pleasure to introduce this issue of Cyber­ 1949. ln those days of rejuvenation, he returned to netics Forum dedicated to my triend and mentor, the old riddle of the nature of the observer. With Heinz Von Foerster. As the following articles demon­ the encouragement of the psychiatrists Victor Frank! strate, Heinz is a man who inspires not only and Otto Potzl, he published a short monograph on admiration and respect for his scientific contribu­ a quantum mechanical theory of physiological tions but also great affection. He is an outstanding memory. During a visit to the United States he met human being as weil as a great scientist. The Warren McCulloch who not only had the data for his articles by Stafford Beer, Gordon Pask, Humberto theory of memory but who also introduced him to Maturana, Lars Lofgren, Edwin Schlossberg and the campus at urbana. Kenneth Wilson often recount personal experiences Through McCulloch, at conferences about Cyber· with Heinz. Kenneth Wilson provides a very useful netics: Circular Causa! and Feedback Mechanisms in overview of Heinz' major articles as weil as the work Biological and Social Systems sponsored by the of visiting cyberneticians in the Biological Computer Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, he met the people who Laboratory. laid the conceptual foundation for understanding the I shall provide some background on how Heinz really complicated systems-teleological systems came to the University of lllinois, a briet discussion and self-organizing systems. The people attending of the effect that the Biological Computer Labaratory these conferences included Gregory Bateson, Julian had on the students who worked there, and finally Bigelow, Margaret Mead, John Von Neumann, some personal reflections on the importance of Norbert Wiener and Ross Ashby. Heinz was so fas­ Heinz' work for cybernetics, science, and society. cinated by the ideas that emerged at these meetings that after seven years of research at the University of lllinois in microwave tubes and ultra-highspeed oscillography, he went on sabbatical leave to learn The Years Before lllinois more about the neurophysiology of his enigmatic observer. After one year under the tutelage of Heinz has been a central figure in the field of Warren McCulloch at MIT and Arturo Rosenblueth in cybernetics since its beginning. During his student Mexico 'he returned to the University of lllinois and days he became involved with the Vienna Circle, a established the Biological Computer Labaratory to group of philosophers that included Wittgenstein, study computational principles in living organisms.(1) Schlick, Menger and Carnap. From them he devel­ oped an interest in the fundamental difference between the world as it is and its symbolic repre­ The Biological Computer Labaratory sentation in language or equati0ns. He wanted to Almost from the beginning it was apparent that learn more about the observer. However, the war the Biological Computer Labaratory (BCL) was not intervened and he spent those years in various labo­ an ordinary university research group. One of the ratories in Germany working on plasma physics and most amusing episodes in the history of BCL was microwave electronics. Luckily he survived the war the series of events that led up to Heinz's being unscathed in mind or body. After the war he helped mentioned in the cartoon strip Pogo, a distinction set up the first post-war radio station in Vienna and for scientists even rarer than the Nobel Prize. (see was in charge of its science and art program until Figure 1) Someone at the National Institute of 4 A Second Order Cybernetician

>- 4i ::.:: -0 3 ..a>- ;0. '

0 $i! C> 0 ~ Cl.

>- 4i ::.:: .:: 0 3 ..a>-

0 C> 0 a..

0 C> 0 Q.

Figure 1. References to the Doomsday article in the Pogo comic strip.

Health wanted a mathematical model of the popula­ article. tion dynamics of white blood corpuscles. Heinz be­ There followed one of the most entertaining ex­ came interested in the dynamics of populations, both changes of letters ever to appear in Science. The those whose elements interact and those with idea that the human population could through com­ elements that do not interact. He figured that data munication form a coalition and engage in a game on human population growth would be the most against nature was a particularly troubling idea. One complete set of data for a population with elements demographer called attention to the widely accepted capable of communication. The result was an article view that industrialization reduces rather than in Science in 1960 by Heinz Von Foerster, Patricia increases population. Heinz and his colleagues Mora and Lawrence Amiot called "Doomsday: Friday, pointed out that if an inverse relationship between 13 November, A.D. 2026."(2) They found that the population and technological know-how is applied to equation which best fit the data was not an expo­ the human population over the last couple of mil­ nential but rather a hyperbolic equation. There is a lennia then either Stone Age man was a technologi­ major difference. lf population is an exponential cal wizard who carefully removed his technological function of time, population will become very !arge achievements so as not to upset his inferior progeny as time increases, but within limited time the popu­ or our population has dwindled from a once astro­ lation will remain finite. A hyperbolic function, how­ nomical size to the mere three billions of today.(3) ever, has asymptotes. That is, there will be a time at The BCL equation turned out to be considerably which population will go to infinity. Applying the more accurate than other forecasts in predicting method of least squares to parameterize the equa­ world population in 1970. The others were more con­ tion led to the date 2027, hence the title of the servative. However, 1975 data suggests that world Cybernetics Forum 5 population has moved ahead of even the SCL would discover that A is better off if S is better oft. equation.(4) Events have tended to follow these predictions. ln ln addition to research the Siological Computer 1968, Paul Erlich published The Population Bomb, Laboratory also had a significant impact on the stu­ and gradually people became more aware of rapidly dents at the University. On even the largest college increasing population and the impossibility of sus­ campuses there is usually a small group of students taining the high growth rate for very long.(7) The who are innovators in campus activities. They are 1970's brought greater attention to global communi­ the students who write for the campus newspaper cations-satellites, television, computer networks­ and Iead political or reform movements. These stu­ and also revelations about the covert activities of dents usually know each other, and they often can the CIA and the FSI. ln 1975 documents were made be found in special project courses with the most public which showed that during World War II the stimulating faculty members. At the University of Allies were able to Iisten to the message traffic of Michigan the Mental Health Research Institute with the German and Japanase high commands.(8) Alan James G. Miller, Anatol Rapoport, Kenneth Soulding Turing was a central figure in this work. lt was no and Richard L. Meier was a focus of innovative accident that World War II was such a successful activity. Tom Hayden and Carl Oglesby were stu­ war for the United States. This new perspective on dents of Kenneth Soulding. Soulding has said that World War II helps to explain the interest of the Students for a Demooratic Society was born in his intelligence agencies in cybernetics research. The living room as a result of a seminar in economics. achievement of Heinz's third prediction-people will The Siological Computer Laboratory served a similar realize that A is better oft when S is better off-lies function at the University of lllinois. Over the years in the future. While there is increasing attention Heinz's students produced a Whole University Cata­ being paid to international development, the arms logue, a book on Metagames, an Ecological Source­ race continues and national and ethnic rivalries per­ book, and a large volume on the Cybernetics of sist. One hopeful sign is that a national commission Cybernetics. has been set up to study the possibility of estab­ lt is easy to understand why there was always a lishing a National Peace Academy. Since the U.S. feeling of excitement around SCL once one under­ now has several military academies devoted to stands Heinz's views on education. Heinz notes that teaching people how to win wars, it seems appropri­ most of contemporary education is designed to ate to have at least one academy devoted to teach­ make students react to a question in exactly the ing people how to resolve disputes short of war. same way. Tests are given to determine how suc­ ln about 1974, I mentioned to Heinz the three pre­ cessful the system has been at making the student dictions he had made a decade earlier. He had for­ a completely predictable member of society. The gotten about them, and he attached little signifi­ higher the score, the more predictable the student. cance to them. He said he had put them together ln other words the purpose of education is to turn a short while before a talk because he thought they nontrivial systems into trivial systems. Heinz, follow­ would amuse the audience. Sut for me, those three ing Herbert Srun, defines an illegitimate question to predictions remain an example of Heinz's depth of be one for which the answer is known. A legitimate insight, broad human concern, and faith in the even­ question is one for which the answer is not known. tual good sense of his fellow human beings. Hence formal education is mostly concerned with Lest this description of the activities at SCL leave illegitimate questions. At SCL the emphasis was on the reader with the impression that the laboratory learning to ask legitimate questions.(5) led an untroubled existence, I should say a few words about the difficulties that Heinz faced. SCL Said Heinz there are two kinds of questions. was a Ieader. lt was chronically ahead of its time. To some there are answers in lessons, There was an exuberance at SCL that some inter­ But the questions that count, preted as Iack of seriousness. Quite a few people The ones to surmount, thought that anyone with an interest in physics, Are the questions that not yet are questioned.(6) linguistics, art, music, dance, and anthropology must be a dilettante. And more than a few people sus­ To be "recruited" to SCL one only had to be pected that calling attention to perception was attentive to the life of the campus. Secause of his somehow subversive. Whi le the Iack of understand­ highly entertaining as weil as thought-provoking ing was unfortunate, it did not greatly matter as manner of speaking, Heinz was a frequent lecturer long as Heinz maintained his reputation as a suc­ on campus. One of the first times I heard him speak cessful grantsman. Sut then came the Mansfield was about 1964 at the weekly luncheon series at the Amendment. Most of the early work on cybernetics YMCA. ln his talk Heinz predicted that in the years had been supported by the Office of Naval Research ahead people would make three discoveries. First, they would discover that the earth is finite. That is, and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Sut population growth cannot continue indefinitely. in about 1968 the Mansfield Amendment put an end to research projects supported by the Department of Second, people would learn that power resides where information resides. Third, human beings Defense which were not clearly related to a military 6 A Second Order Cybernetician mission. lt was intended that the National Science Consequently the results of most scientific work are Foundation and other agencies would pick up the readily understood and there is widespread agree· support of projects that had been funded by DOD. ment about their significance within the community The problern of course was that these agencies did concerned. not have people who were familiar with the work in But scientific work that Ieads to the establishment cybernetics. There followed several frustrating years of a new area of inquiry is different in kind. To of searching for new sources of support. Meanwhile understand this difference I find it useful to refer to Ross Ashby and Gotthard Gunther had retired and Thomas Kuhn's Iist of components of a "disciplinary left the University. Finally in 1975 Heinz retired and matrix." ln the epilogue to The Structure of Scien­ moved to California. The University decided not to tific Revolutions Kuhn identifies at least four ele­ hire new faculty members to continue the work of ments of a scientific field.(9) (1) There are "symbolic BCL. For those familiar with the laboratory, it was a generalizations" such as F = ma and E =IR. heartbreaking end to a remarkable episode in the (2) Models and analogies include the idea that elec· history of science. tric current is similar to water flowing in a pipe and the idea that the molecules of a gas behave like tiny elastic billiard balls in random motion. (3) "Values" could include the following proposi­ tions. Quantitive predicalions are preferable to quali­ How to do Cybernetics tative ones. Predictions should be accurate. Theories BCL left behind a rich legacy. ln its day it was should (or need not) be socially useful. (4) "Exemp· one of very few educational institutions training lars" are the concrete problern solutions that stu­ people in cybernetics. Between 1958 and 1975 oper­ dents encounter from the start of their scientific ating under 25 grants, the laboratory produced 256 education, whether in laboratories, on examinations, articles and books, 14 masters theses and 28 doc­ or at the ends of chapters in scientific texts. toral dissertations. The topics covered epistemology, Exemplars show scientists how their job is to be logic, neurophysiology, theory of computation, elec­ done. tronic music and automated instruction. These Work at George Washington University on a "dis­ materials are available in a microfiche file compiled ciplinary matrix" for the field of cybernetics has led by Kenneth Wilson. But merely to note the range of to two additional components. (5) "Guiding ques­ ideas developed at BCL does not capture the feel­ tions" state the principal concerns that motivate the ings regarding the laboratory. Among the graduates development of a theory. For example, early in his of BCL that I know there is a strong feeling that career Warren McCulloch asked the question, "What the work produced at BCL has not received the is a number that man may know it, and a man that attention that it deserves. When we. go to confer­ he may know a number?" (6) "Techniques" are the ences on cybernetics and systems theory, we find methods an author uses to persuade the reader to that many people are still struggling with issues his point of view. Techniques can be mathematical that were resolved at BCL, often quite elegantly, or verbal. Examples are set theoretical proofs, long ago. We believe that the field could progress regression analysis, computer simulation, laboratory more rapidly if the work done at BCL were more experiments with animals, survey research, gedanken widely known. Of course other groups were also experiments, and historical examples. doing important work during this period. Great pro­ Major changes in science seem to occur through gress was being made in computer science, artificial the formulation of new "guiding questions". Heinz, intelligence, operations research, simulation lan­ for instance, has been preoccupied with the nature guages, the brain sciences and other related fields. of the observer. Progress toward the resolution of But at BCL there was more emphasis on episte­ these questions usually takes the form of new mology than at most other cybernetics research "exemplars". The role of exemplars in the develop­ institutes. The different espistemology has led to a ment of a scientific field is crucial. Kuhn equates sort of gap between the BCL point of view and other his concept of "paradigm" with exemplars. systems theorists. People with a BCL background Exemplars can be used to identify the groups within experience this gap as frustration when we try to a scientific field who practice the discipline discuss a wide range of theoretical issues. Our differently. views are often rejected for reasons which seem Those with a BCL background use different to us uninformed and unpersuasive. lt is apparent exemplars and hence are using a different paradigm. that there is something rather complex going on. Heinz's articles are filled with fascinating exemplars. ln order to understand the importance of Heinz's Three of these accompany this article as illus· ideas and why they have so far experienced such trations. A central concept within the field of systems limited acclaim, it is necessary to understand how science is the notion that a whole can be somehow science operates. Most scientific work follows weil greater than the sum of its parts. (see Exemplar 1) trod paths. The questions dealt with are widely Yet this very important idea is often not precisely shared. The methods used are commonly practiced. Cybernetics Forum 7 understood. Heinz has resolved the mystery with two box illustrates how this very general process can simple illustrations, one from mathematics and one also generate variety. As the separate boxes find from biology. stable relationships, they form chains. The chains of The story of the magnetic cubes in a box demon­ boxes can themselves be the elements in the next strates what Heinz calls "order from noise" (see step in the process of self-organization. Thus Exemplar 2). I believe that it is also the most readily Heinz's example of the magnetic cubes in a box understood Blustration of a self-organizing system. solves the problern of the emergence of new ln order for more complex systems to evolve, two entities. things must happen. New variety must be generated, The idea of a self-organizing system as a closed and appropriate selection must take place. A self­ system (the interaction rules do not change during organizing system is not a living system. Rather, a the period of observation) is one of the most impor­ self-organizing system contains organisms and their tant and powerful ideas in systems theory. The prin­ environments. As the system moves toward its ciple can be applied in many ways. For instance, stable equilibrial states, it "selects" the stable rela­ anticipating the stable states of a system is an tionships. The example of the magnetic cubes in a alternative to trend extrapolation as a forecasting method.

EXEMPLAR 1 a' + b' + 2ab > a' + b'. On lnteractlon, the Whole and lts Parts: The margin which makes the left hand side of this inequality larger than the right hand side is, of Communication Amongst Planariae course, the product 2ab. This provides us with an A coalition is an example of the old saying that important clue. The product 2ab is nothing eise but "the whole is more than the sum of its parts." the measure of the Interaction of the two parts a Although we seem to understand very weil what this and b, namely the Interaction of a with b and b with means, this statement has been attacked by posi­ a. Hence, by taking the mutual Interaction of ele­ tivists and operationalists time and again, rightly so, ments in a system into consideration, the system as I think because the way it stands it clearly is non­ a whole indeed represents a more valuable entity sense. Two and two are both parts of four, but than the mere sum of its Independent parts. That a 2 + 2 = 4 and not a tiny bit more or less. However, coalition is such a structure, where the individual if what we want to say by this statement is properly elements interact for the benefit of the system as a formulated, a most profound principle is defined. lt whole, and hence for the advantage of each element is the principle of superadditive compositions for comprising the system is, I believe, now reasonably elements making up a system. Let me first give a clear. precise formulation of this principle in rather These so called "non-linear composition rules" abstract terms, and later illustrate the application of allow in a non-trivial way the description of systems this principle to pertinent concrete Situations. What composed of interacting elements. Take, for instance, we really want to say is: "A measure of the sum of a colony of about a hundred million flatworms of the the parts is larger than the sum of the measure of genus planaria. Each of these creatures has about the parts." This statement can be formulated in even one hundred nerve cells. Thus, all together they have more precise, mathematical terms. Consider F to be about ten billion nerve cells. The human brain also a measure function. lf you recall that the symbol has about ten billion nerve cells. Why don't these ">" stands for "left side larger than right side," the hundred million planariae represent the intelligence above statement can be written in the following way: of a human brain? With this short course on super­ additive composition rules, you are certainly now in F(a + b) > F(a) + F(b). a position to answer this puzzle. lt is because brain cells are in a state of perpetual interaction, constant­ ln order to make this highly symbolical expression ly coordinating, abstracting, and sifting pertinent more tangible, Iet me suggest a simple example Information for the system as a whole. Poor which may evoke old high school memories. Take for planariae cannot do it; add a couple of million the moment as an example of a measure function planariae to our colony, and nothing changes in the the operation "squaring;" that is structure of this colony. They do not interact. lf they F( ) = ( )'. interact, they interact by competing for a limited Squaring all F-expressions in our first equation we supply of food. obtain: F(a + b) = (a + b)' = a' + b' + 2ab and Heinz Von Foerster, "The Logical Structure of Envi­ F(a) = a', F(b) = b'. ronment and lts Interna! Representation," Interna­ Putting the results back in the form of our first tional Design Conference Aspen 1962. R.E. Eckerstrom equation, we obtain the undeniable truth that indeed: (ed.), Zeeland, Michigan: Herman Miller, lnc. 1963. 8 A Second Order Cybernetician

EXEMPLAR 2 MagneUe Cubes in a Box: Order From Noise Let me briefly explain what I mean by saying that a self-organizing system feeds upon noise by using an almost trivial, but nevertheless amusing example. Assurne I get myself a large sheet of permanent magnetic material which is strongly magnetized perpendicular to the surface, and I cut from this sheet a large number of little squares. These little squares I glue to all the surfaces of small cubes made of light, unmagnetic material, having the same size as my squares. Depending upon the choice of which sides of the cubes have the magnetic north pole pointing to the outside (Family I), one can pro­ duce precisely ten different families of cubes. Suppose now I take a number of cubes, say, of family I, which is characterized by all sides having north poles pointing to the outside (or family I' with all south poles), put them into a large box which is also filled with tiny glass pebbles in order to make these cubes float under friction and start shaking this box. Certainly, nothing very striking is going to happen: since the cubes are all repelling each other, they will tend to distribute themselves in the avail­ able space such that none of them will come too Figure 2. An arrangement of magnetic cubes close to its fellow-cube. lf, by putting the cubes into demonstrates order form nolse. the box, no particular ordering principle was ob­ served, the entropy of the system will remain con­ stant, or, at worst, increase a small amount. ln order to make this game a little more amusing, lf I would have left you ignorant with respect to suppose now I collect a population of cubes where my magnetic-surface trick and you would ask me, only half of the elements are again members belang­ what is it that put these cubes into this remark­ ing to family I (or I') while the other half are mem­ able order, I would keep a straight face and would bers of family II (or II') which is characterized by answer: The shaking, of course-and some little having only one side of different magnetism pointing demons in the box. to the outside. lf this population is put into my box With this example, I hope, I have sufficiently illus­ and I go on shaking, clearly, those cubes with the trated the principle I called "order from noise," single different pole pointing to the outside will because no order was fed to the system, just cheap tend, with overwhelming probability, to mate with undirected energy; however, thanks to the little members of the other family, until my cubes have demons in the box, in the long run only those com­ almost all paired up. Since the conditional proba­ ponents of the noise were selected which contributed bilities of finding a member of family II, given the to the increase of order in the system. The occcur­ locus of a member of family I, has very mucn in­ rence of a mutation e.g. would be a pertinent creased, the entropy of the system has gone down, analogy in the case of gametes being the systems hence we have more order after the shaking than of consideration. before. Hence, I would name two mechanisms as impor­ I grant you, that this increase in orderliness is not tant clues to the understanding of self-organizing impressive at all, particularly if the population systems, one we may call the "order from order" density is high. All right then, let's take a popula­ principle as Sehredinger suggested, and the other tion made up entirely of members belonging to one the "order from noise" principle, both of which family IVB, which is characterized by opposite require the cooperation of our demons who are polarity of the two pairs of those three sides which created along with the elements of our system, being join in two opposite corners. I put these cubes into manifest in some of the intrinsic structural proper­ my box and you shake it. After some time we open ties of these elements. the box and, instead of seeing a heap of cubes piled up somewhere in the box, you may not believe you eyes, but an incredibly ordered structure will Heinz Von Foerster, "On Self-Organizing Systems emerge, which, I fancy, may pass the grade to be and Their Environments," in Yovits and Cameron displayed in an exhibition of surrealistic art (see (eds.), Self-Organizing Systems, New York: Pergamon, Figure 2). 1960, pp. 31-50. Cybernetics Forum 9

Regression fits systems just trivial. The gentleman in the bowler hat can be regarded But humans are systems convivial. as proof of the need for multivalued logics (see Ex­ To say what will last emplar 3). A principal concern of systems theory is From times that are past, the relationship between an organism and its en­ Will Iead to conclusions peripheral. vironment. However, it is not sufficient to speak only

EXEMPLAR 3 The Gentleman in the Bowler Hat: - -- - -· ---=------. ~ Autonomy, Responsibllity, Reality ;G \ "The nervous system is organized (or organ­ I ' I I -- t 1 izes itself) so that it computes a stable .0 ,.I ;- """ ~r:~ ~/ ·, L-f ~ J , reality." ;.::> /,0' .:) I , -r - i- This postulate stipulates "autonomy," i.e., "self­ -- ' ' ' 1--._. u>C .{:.· J ) regulation," for every living organism. Since the ~\-~ ,(~"_/ -- :1·.t- semantic structure of nouns with prefix "self·" be­ ·' \« ,/ ft..Y" ~tI -.< , ·' / I comes more transparent when this prefix is replaced . I' ' .~-r~)>, by the noun, "autonomy" becomes synonymous with ----:-~-}/ ) "regulation of regulation." ...,. ; ( lt may be strange in times like these to stipulate autonomy, for autonomy implies responsibility: lf I _- L7/ am the only one who decides how I act, then I am responsible for my action. Since the rufe of the most - popular game played today is to make someone eise ~ ;- '/ / I responsible for my acts-the name of the game is ' • I L,.... I· "heteronomy"-my arguments make, I understand, a \ ; - __/r J most unpopular claim. One way of sweeping it under the rug is to dismiss it as just another attempt to -V b rescue "solipsism," the view that this world is only in my imagination and the only reality is the ima­ Figure 3. The gentleman in the bowler hat. Are gining "1." lndeed, that was precisely what I was his perceptions of other people fantasies or saying before, but I was talking only about a single reality? organism. The Situation is quite different when there are two, as I shall demonstrate with the aid of the gentleman with the bowler hat (see Figure 3). He adopt this principle or to reject it. lf I reject it, I insists that he is the sole reality, while everything am the center of the universe, my reality are my eise appears only in his imagination. However, he dreams and my nightmares, my language is mono­ cannot deny that his imaginary universe is populated logue, and my logic mono-logic. lf I adopt it, neither with apparitions that are not unlike himself. Hence, me nor the other can be the center of the universe. he has to concede that they themselves may insist As in the heliocentric system, there must be a third that they are the sole reality and everything eise is that is the centrar reference. lt is the relation only a concoction of their imagination. in that case between Thou and I, and this relation is IDENTITY: their imaginary universe will be populated with apparitions, one of which may be he, the gentleman Reality = Community. with the bowler hat. According to the Principle of Relativity which What are the consequences of all this in ethics and rejects a hypothesis when it does not hold for two aesthetics? instances together, although it holds for each instance separately (Earthlings and Venusians may The Ethical Imperative: Act always so as to increase be consistent in claiming to be in the center of the number of choices. the universe, but their claims fall to pieces if they should ever get together), the solipsistic claim falls The Aesthetical Imperative: lf you desire to see, learn to pieces when beside me I invent another autono­ how to act. mous organism. However, it should be noted that since the Principle of Relativity is not a logical Heinz Von Foerster, "On Constructing a Reality," in necessity, nor is it a proposition that can be proven W.F.E. Preiser (ed.), Environmental Design Research, to be either true or false, the crucial point to be Volume 2, Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross, 1973, recognized here is that I am free to choose either to pp. 44-45. 10 Second Order Cybernetician

of an organism and its environment. The logical TABLE 1 structure of the concept "environment" is more com­ plex than can be described by a dyadic relationship. ln order to establish the concept "environment," Author First Order Second Order Cybernetlcs Cybernetics there must be at least two elements observing this environment. And they must be sufficiently alike in Von Foerster The science of The science of order to serve as mutual witnesses for any objective observed systems observing systems event. Only knowlege that can be shared belongs to the environment. Observers without shared Pask The purpese of The purpese of knowledge inhabit different universes. The logical the model the modeller structure of environment is a triadic relation because Varela Controlled systems Autonomous it involves three entities: an observer, A; a witness, systems A'; and that which is witnessed, B. Environment can be called "together-knowledge" for which the Latin Umpleby Interaction among Interaction between expression is conscientia. Heinz has suggested that the variables in the observer and it was probably the triadic logical structure of this a system the observed concept that gave philosophers over the last three Umpleby Theories of social A theory of the thousand years difficulty when they tried to resort systems interaction to a simple true-false, two-valued, Aristotelian logic, between ideas where at least a three-valued logic is required.(10) Of and society course it can be claimed that consciousness is a single person's affair and that you do not need a witness in order to be conscious. However, note that our consciousness is produced by the "together­ experimenter would now have two groups of sub­ knowledge" of our different senses. The ear is wit­ jects rather than just one. For example, one group ness to what the eye sees. Touch confirms what the would be given the medication to be tested and the eye reports. other group would receive a placebo. The difference For those for whom mental activity is an impor­ between the responses of the two groups was tant part of life, a person who can invent images assumed to be due to the drug. Effects due to the with such great organizing power becomes the attention received by the subjects from the doctor object of tremendous affection. Cybernetics, like any could thereby be eliminated. This second stage in science, is a different way of seeing. "Doing re­ the treatment of objectivity could be called "con­ search" on a different way of seeing means creating structed objectivity." examples of how the world Iooks from the new point Things became quite unwieldy, however, when of view. lf the field of cybernetics has not pro­ social scientists began to do large scale social ex­ gressed as rapidly as we would have liked, the rea­ periments. During the mid-1960's a great wave of son may lie in the fact that more of us have not social legislation was passed in the United States realized that a new field requires new exemplars. as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program. After a few years it became apparent that many of the programs were not working exactly as antici­ pated. There then developed a peculiar commonality Second Order Cybernetics and of interest between conservatives and social scien­ tists. The conservatives wanted to stop the social the Change of Science programs. The social scientists argued that before Heinz believes that in order to deal with current implementing a new social program on a nationwide concerns, science must change to include attention basis, experiments should be run in selected com­ to the observer. He calls the new point of view munities to determine the effects of the program. "second order cybernetics." For several definitions These experiments were frequently quite controver­ of the difference between first order cybernetics and sial. The purpose of the experiment was usually de­ second order cybernetics, see Table 1.(11) Let me fined differently by different people. The experimen­ explain this new point of view in my own words. ters were considered suspect because they did not Science can be thought of as having moved through live in the community. And people demonstrated a three stages in how it deals with objectivity. ln the remarkable ability to reject findings they did not early days of science researchers were concerned agree with no matter how "scientifically" the experi­ with inanimate objects such as balls, pendula and ment was conducted. planets. We could call this an era of "unquestioned These experiences led Mitroff and Blankanship to objectivity." When science progressed to the study develop seven guidelines for conducting a holistic of human behavior, it was found that control groups experiment.(12) The guidelines are a radical departure were necessary to eliminate interaction effects be­ from current methods in the social sciences. The tween the observer and the subjects. That is, the usual social science experiment today, consistent Cybernetics Forum 11 with the second stage in the treatment of objec­ less it is extremely difficult to persuade a person tivity, consists of testing a single hypothesis using a whose early career involved the abandonment of one set of subjects and a control group. However, the position and the adoption of a new one to embrace guidelines for a holistic experiment say that at least a point of view which appears to him to be quite two points of view should be used. Furthermore, the similar to a position he long ago rejected. For deal­ experimenters should be included within the class of ing with this second kind of opposition to the new subjects, and the subjects should be included within epistemology I believe our best hope lies in the the class of experimenters. These guidelines amount correspondence principle. to a new scientific method that is compatible with Heinz introduced me to the correspondence prin­ the new epistemology and its emphasis on the role ciple-any new theory should reduce to the old of the observer. This third stage in the treatment of theory for those cases in which the old theory is objectivity can be called the period of "contested known to hold. The principle assumes that science objectivity." grows somewhat like concentric circles. Of course science can also grow by the development of theories to explain completely new phenomena un­ Some systems display little interaction, But politics makes payments to each faction. related to previously explained phenomena. But if When establishing agreement, the correspondence principle can be applied, it Becomes a great achievement, brings with it several advantages. First, if the new Will "objectivity" give sufficient satisfaction? theory is consistent with the old theory for those cases already investigated, a large body of support for the new theory is readily at hand. Second, and The new epistemology or second order cybernetics most important for our purposes, if the corres­ encounters at least two kinds of resistance. Some pondence principle can be shown to hold, then people simply do not understand the question. those scientists who have devoted their professional Hence, they are unable to appreciate the answer. lives to the development of the old theory have not The concern with epistemology is not their concern. labored in vain. That is, the new theory does not Their attention is elsewhere. So the discussion is threaten to invalidate their work, merely to extend irrelevant. This was my Situation during my early it. Thus the correspondence principle reduces the association with BCL. I began working with Heinz threat of the new theory to those who have devel­ in 1971 in order to better understand the work of oped the old theory. Of course the correspondence Ross Ashby, which did seem relevant to my con­ principle does not completely reduce the emotional cerns at the time. Heinz kept talking about the observer, a point that seemed rather obvious to me threat. Nor does it seem to make the paradigm and not worthy of lengthy discussion. I believe it shift noticeably easier. Nevertheless I have found it took about eighteen months for me to begin to get to be a useful debating point that seems to ease tensions. The principle tends to turn an either/or an inkling of what Heinz was talking about. I find situation into a both/and situation. now that second order cybernetics provides me with The way to apply the correspondence principle to a scientifc basis for understanding things which I second order cybernetics is as follows. Start with previously would have thought were outside the the assumption that first order cybernetics dealt reach of science. For example the recent rise of humanistic psychology and the human potential movement and the current concern with values and ethics can be explained in terms of the observer's being aware of his relationship with his environment and the desire that people have to develop communi­ ties of common understanding. The second type of opposition that the new point of view encounters is more difficult to cope with. This Opposition is less a matter of ignorance than amount of interaction between trained disbelief. lt is not malicious, but it can be observer and observed virulent. lts self-confidence springs from the belief that the concern with the observer is a new form of introspectionism, the point of view that psycholo­ gists abandoned when they adopted behavioralism \ second order cybernetics in the 1950's in their effort to be more scientific. or the new epistemology lt may weil be that science tends to oscillate back and forth between positions-a concern with the observer, then with the outside world, then with the observer, etc. But the pendulum never returns to Figure 4. Second order cybernetics is in accord with exactly the same position. The old position is rede­ the correspondence principle. The old epistemology fined as a result of intervening experience. Neverthe- is a special case of the new epistemology. 12 Second Order Cybernetician with interaction among the variables in a system. 7. Paul R. Ehrlich, The Population 8omb, New York: Second order cybernetics, on the other hand, Ballantine, 1968. focuses attention on the interaction between the Ob­ 8. F. W. Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, A Deli server and the system being observed. Now draw a Book, 1975. line going from zero to some large number. (see 9. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Figure 4) The points on this line indicate the amount Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, Second of interaction between the observer and the system Edition, 1970, pp. 182-187. being observed. Classical science or logical posi­ 10. Heinz Von Foerster, "The Logical Structure of tivism dealt only with cases very near zero. Con­ Environment and lts Interna! Representation," temporary science deals with cases all along the International Design Conference Aspen 1962, R. line. Clearly the old scientific method is a special E. Eckerstrom (ed.), Zeeland, Michigan: Herman case, a subset, of the new scientific method. Miller, lnc., 1963. Few scientists have made contributions as sig­ 11. Stuart A. Umpleby, "Second Order Cybernetics nificant as Heinz Von Foerster. He has contributed and the Design of Large-Scale Social Experi­ to electrical engineering and neurophysiology, he ments," Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of revolutionized demography, and he has been a the Society for General Systems Research, central figure in establishing the new field of cyber­ Boston, February 1975. netics. There are still some systems theorists who 12. lan Mitroff and Vaughan Blankenship, "On the claim that systems theory is not and should not be Methodology of the Holistic Experiment: An Ap­ a scientific field. But Heinz had the daring to follow­ proach to the Conceptualization of Large-Scale ing the idea of communication and control to its Social Experiments," Technological Forecasting logical conclusion. Since science is a method of and Social Change, 414, 1973, pp. 339-353. communication and control, cybernetics is in part a science of science. By concentrating on the observer it became apparent that a new kind of science is required. Heinz and his colleagues not only estab­ lished cybernetics as a scientific field in its own right, they have also developed theories which will eventually Iead to the change of science itself. Heinz is currently enjoying a very active retirement in a house which he, his wife Mai, and his son Andy designed, and with one helper built on Rattle­ snake Hili close to Pescadero in California.

REFERENCES 1. This account is taken from Heinz Von Foerster, "Physics and Anthropology: A Personal Account by the New President of the Wenner-Gren Foun­ dation," Current Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1964, p. 330. 2. Heinz Von Foerster, Patricia M. Mora, and Lawrence W. Amiot, "Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026, Science, 13213436, 1960, pp. 1291-1295. 3. Von Foerster, Mora and Amiot, "Population Density and Growth," Science, 13313468, 16 June 1961, pp. 1931-1937. 4. James Serrin, "ls Doomsday on Target?" Science, 18914197, 11 July 1975. 5. Based on an article by Don Blyly, "Von Foerster: Austrian Professor Brings Creativity, Innovation." Technograph, the student engineering magazine at the University of lllinois, February 1973, p. 11. 6. One semester while grading papers, I was moved to write several Iimericks about cybernetics. At the risk that they may seem inappropriate to some readers I have inserted a few in this article to provide further explanation and to enliven the presentation. Professor Stafford Beer Cwarel lsaf Pont Creuddyn Lampeter Dyfed SA48 8PG Wales UK

An Open Letter To Dr. Von Foerster

from Stafford Beer.

My dear Heinz, matics, or the Iove, is of no consequence. I want to thank you for being something to me that very few Ah·ha! What is this fellow up to? have been. The words are dull and prosaic indeed, That was my first reaction to meeting you, more and should embarrass no-one (except perhaps you, than a quarter of century ago, when you leapt out since you will understand them). You have been and of the pages of your paper 'Quantum Theory of long may you remain so, a negentropic pump to me. Memory', and hit me on the head. You did it again That is truly a gift of God, and something rare. only recently, when I read your reported remarks on Weil, Heinz, what can I do with this opportunity the nature of self-consciousness. For twenty-five to talk with you in public? Unlike so many of your years you have made a habit of it. Whether you were friends, I have not been involved with your institu­ writing about the population explosion, information tional activities. They can speak for all your fine retrieval, cognition, or (for Heaven's sake) taxation, work at lllinois, and I cannot. I am absolutely on the you leapt out of the pages, and hit me on the head. outside, and absolutely on the inside: surely it is a All that has a Iot to do with your incredible flair very special position. There is no point in agonizing for illuminating your own bright ideas with the most about it, and I am going to discuss just a few creative use of mathematics that I have ever wit· things which occur to me in the context of our nessed. ln every field you have touched, from psy­ friendship, and which eavesdroppers may find of chology to economics, there exists a corpus of some interest. mathematical theory which is about as illuminating to the complexities of the systemic issues involved as a firefly. I have nothing against fireflies, which constitute such nice little cybernetic communities; About Neurocybernetics but when your floodlights come on those fellows I go back now a long way, maybe to our first are out of business. I suppose that the Establish­ meeting. A group of us were talking about the build· ment was blinded; but this is not the moment to ing of 'artificial brains'. Computers barely existed, turn aux royaumes des aveugles ..... and in particular no-one was sure whether the tran­ I have not yet referred, I realize, to our meetings sistor 'would work'. As soon as you brought a sol­ in the flesh, and frankly I cannot remember exactly dering iron anywhere near one of those three when those began. They must however already span prongs, the heat blew the device . . . . . So what some twenty years. ln any case, the story is the would it take to construct an artificial neuron? We same. Whether you leap out of the printed page or a would need a box capable of registering pulsed in­ well-upholstered armchair to hit me on the head, I puts from various sources. These would be used to am reeling just the same. Ah·ha! What is this fellow charge up a condenser to some threshold. Dis­ up to? Weil, speaking as the cyberneticist with the charge, representing 'decision' as the net effect of sorest head in the business, I have to attest to the exitatory and inhibitory impulses, would operate a fact that an awful Iot of sheer Iove got in there relay. This action would set an internal switch to somewhere. I think that it shows. Mutual friends provide at least a one-shot storage, and transmit an have told me that they find it embarrassing. To output pulse to the neural network. But in order to which I reply: bad luck. poop that signal on, our box would have to include Whatever is the mainspring of my admiration for an amplifier-consisting of a little collection of you, whether the bright ideas, or the brilliant mathe· space-heating thermionic values. We could not pack 14 An Open Letter all this equipment into a box smaller than (say) a much bigger than that farnaus shoebox, and costing shoebox, nor could we buy the parts for less than peanuts, orthogonally arranged with microprocessing (say) twenty dollars. I cannot vouch for all these boards on a bus (leading to amazing flexibility), with details after so lang, but the message was clear. a random access memory of a megabyte. Link a few A brain artefact would need 1010 of these things. lt of those together, and we are in the brain artefact would cover the whole of Yorkshire. And the cost..... ball-park. I am sure that you also are alert to these The next bit of the story I can vouch for, since I developments. Then perhaps the time comes to remember it distinctly. You shook your head sadly make another huge effort, a quarter century on, to and said: 'Gentlemen, we shall get nowhere with this find the physiological approach, illuminated by approach until we have artificial neurons as small as neurocybernetics, to the regulation of very large the point of a pin, which you can buy for ten cents probabilistic systems. We were on the way, I think, a shovelful.' all that time ago: the Hixon Symposium; the annual That appeared to be that. We moved into the Josiah Macey colloquia, which you yourself so pains­ epoch of electronic computers conceived as giant takingly edited .. . . . but the technology Iet things adding machines. They became less and less like down. How could we build von Neumann's redundant brain artefacts by any neurocybernetic criterion. For networks, or McCulloch's formal neural nets, on a instance, and in particular, they are tools whose suitable scale? Now we certainly can. nature has conditioned the approach to the regula­ I submit that humankind has a new set of tools tion of very large probabilistic systems in totally in its grasp called microelectronics which makes the unphysiological ways. Scientists have been led to whole history of electronic computing to date represent these systems-urban development, demo­ irrelevant. The risk is that this will not be under­ graphic development, industrial (meaning pollution) stood, and/or that understanding will be blocked by development, global weather systems, global eco­ the vested interests of the zoo-keepers who are in nomic systems, whole ecologies-as vast arrays of charge of the existing menageries of computer dino­ simultaneaus equations. They have stuffed these saurs. Just as we used the electronic computer to matrices into the giant CPUs of ever !arger main­ enshrine ledgers and quill pens in glass and wire, frame computers, and mercilessly inverted them until so may we now breed a race of miniature dinosaurs they squeal. lt is said that some of these fellows out of silicon chips. Surely, now we have the tech­ have terminals in their bedrooms, so that they may nology for the neuron at ten cents the shovelful, access the inner workings of these models; but he it is time to renew the promise of neurocybernetics. must be a veritable deus pro machina who knows How can that promise best be expressed? Since which coefficient to change in a maximizing func­ every regulator must be an effective model of the tional, and by how much. system regulated, it ought to consist of an isomor­ I think that it all comes down to this with these phic mapping of the system. Such things are hard computers. 'We have ways of making you talk'; and to come by; indeed, the reason why the current if you (sad, unphysiological brain) constitute a regu­ approach is as ineffective as was argued above, is lator constituting a non-model of the regulated that the mappings are contorted homomorphisms system, your talk is as the reeds being shaken by and not isomorphic at all. Weil, it is evident but not the wind. And only the computer manufacturers are trivial that the guaranteed isomorphic mapping is the clothed in soft garments. You weil know, Heinz, that identity mapping. The ocean, for example, is the these bitter words are not the product of mere hind­ computer that solves its own diophantine equa­ sight. lt is more than twenty years since my keynote tions-or nary a wave could break. The same must address to the second international congress on be true of the brain: it identically maps itself, and cybernetics at Namur was called 'The lrrelevance of then declares that there is an imputed external Automation'. lt meant to say that if we did not reality just like that. Without pressing the full episte­ correctly think through the cybernetic issues for the mological implications of that contention, however, I regulation of large probabilistic systems, the capabil­ think that we can go as far as to say this. lf we ity to handle regulation by computer would avail take hold of a large, probabilistic system (such as nothing. lt has worked out far worse than I feared. one of those previously listed) and innervate it with Most of what is today being expensively and pres­ a network of microprocessors, so that each ganglion tigiously done in the areas mentioned in the last of neurons reflects local conditions, and all are paragraph is pure nonsense. interconnected to form an ultrastable system, then Now I would not be wasting print on all of this we approach an identity mapping of that system. if it were simply a matter of weeping reminiscent Then this regulatory network should be as compe­ tears into the wine. My story left you calling sadly tent to 'solve' the system as is the system itself. for 'artificial neurons as small as the point of a pin, lt certainly has to be borne in mind that such which you can buy for ten cents a shovelful'. At the systems do 'solve themselves'. The reason that man­ time, it sounded ridiculous; but it was prophetic. kind is so interested to understand them is that the With microprocessors, that is exactly what we hold working out of the natural systemic laws may pay in our hands today. I have seen a machine, not scant regard to the wishes of humanity. lt is easy Cybernetics Forum

to think of many incipiently unstable systems, rang­ through the cybernetic filters that we had designed ing from the ecology to nuclear gamemanship, which on the only computer facility available, and to send will sooner or later achieve a new equilibrium; but it the messages back to the remote origins of the is not easy to find any assurance for the hope that data. That is what we were doing; and I think you the new arrangements will necessarily include the inspected the process, and could attest to its survival of our species. That is why we seek to innocuousness. construct regulators, I suppose: regulators that will lt strikes me as extremely sad that people who accept certain constraints on purely natural solu­ have not the least insight into cybernetic processes tions, or at the worst will provide some warning of increasingly refer to Project Cybersyn as if it had Iethai tendencies in the systems regulated. been a sinister attempt to centralize power, a deduc­ tion erroneously drawn from the technological acci­ dentals of the case. Obviously this is infuriating to About Social Cybernetics me, especially because it is wholly contrary to every element of the briefings that I had with the Presi­ Those reflections were based on an anecdote dent himself, and is a slur on his intentions as weil about a meeting between us long ago. Although they as my competence. But much more importantly, it are concerned with what we might call a neurocy­ draws attention away from what could yet be done­ bernetic technology, the applications that occured to especially by the use of microprocessing, on the me were immediately in the area of large social lines that I was discussing just now. systems-because most of my professional work May I try out an argument in this open Ietter has been in that kind of managerial scene. So now which is as apolitical as I can make it. No govern­ I remind you of another and more recent meeting, ment, of whatever ideology, avoids massive interven­ when you suddenly walked into my room in Santiago tion in the life of the country. This is an observ­ de Chile. To make up for earlier vagueness, I can able fact. What is more, massive intervention is tell you that this meeting transpired at 6:00 pm on demonstrably unavoidable if the explosive proclivities Friday 22nd June, 1973! We had different assign­ of interacting systems (all aggregating into ever ments in Chile; my own, which was effectively to larger and more powerful units) are to be contained. provide a real-time regulatory system for the social There will certainly be political disagreements as to economy, appeared so portentous an undertaking how massive 'massive' intervention may legitimately that I kept a detailed log for the first and last time be; but it is necessarily large. And it is necessarily in my life. administered by a bureaucracy. We met several times in those final days before Now to use a word that names a concept that the September coup; and you got to know several cybernetics owes to the fertile seed-bed. of your of my key Chilean collaborators, who were as over­ Iabaratory at lllinois, the most favorable view of this joyed to be able to attend your seminars as I was bureaucracy is that it attends to national autopoie­ to know that you were teaching them. Moreover, you sis. That is to say, the national identity is main­ became the only eminent foreign scientist actually tained by the preservation of its own (that is, ~he to see some of the cybernetic activity in which I nation's) organization, and the bureaucracy facilitates was engaged during two hectic years for President this. What we see in practice, all over the world, Allende, in collaboration with his minister Fernando can hardly be interpreted thus favourably. The Flores. pathology begins when the bureaucracy is concerned The idea was indeed to innervate the social to preserve-not the nation's identity-but its own. economy. Channels for these nerves were soon set And the same diagnosis seems to me to apply to up; and we had microwave links and extant telex lesser bureaucracies than the national. For example, networks to pull into service, and to create the so­ is the health service or the education service mainly called Cybernet, which covered the 3000 miles of the concerned with the delivery of these services, or country on a continuous basis. The basic idea was with preserving its own organization? to provide advanced management tools, and com­ I am always asked how the Chilean bureaucracy puter power itself, to the workers' committees who reacted to Project Cybersyn, and how we managed were running factories and the industrial sectors­ to move it. The answer is that we simply ignored which obviously had to be connected together to the bureaucracy, and set up our network indepen­ 'solve' the social economy in just the sense dis­ dently under direct ministerial authority. ln two cussed in the last section. years we had about seventy percent of the social Even at the time it was technological/y possible to economy incorporated into the Cybersyn system. create a network of decentralized minicomputers to And I have often reflected that, had it been neces­ constitute the nodes of a neurocybernetic artefact, sary to work through the bureaucracy, we should not with teleprocessing interfaces. Unfortunately, this have had even our initial plans approved within that approach was impracticable: there was no foreign time. As an indication that this is no exaggeration, exchange to buy the equipment. Thus there was no it is worth recording that the Chilean government alternative but to bring data over Cybernet to asked the British government for 'overseas aid' Santiago from all over the country, to process them support for the work I was doing. Nothing was heard 16 An Open Letter of this proposal for more than eighteen months. I netic things that I reckon to understand. You will was eventually asked about the work in London agree that this was a prudential policy; whether you some ten days after the coup which brought down agree or not with what I have said I am avid to hear. the Allende administration, when the work was all lt has to be stated emphatically that the views I over. Only an ingenou could imagine that this was a have expressed cannot be laid at your door. coincidence. lt could have been a straight political But in closing, my dear Heinz, I certainly do in­ decision; but I satisfied myself that it was not. lt tend to lay something at your door. You are a was pathological autopoiesis. negentropy pump for me, as I said, and you had ln short, all radical change is threatening, as both better be clear that you are a negentropy pump for of us and many of our colleagues know all too weil. a whole population of cybernetic aspirants as weil. But sooner or later, we have to believe, the under­ Those of us who have been around your influence standing so hardly acquired will prove useful some­ for donkeys' years can usually dredge up a recol­ where. With the microprocessing technology that lection or a reference-or know where to get it. But makes the artefact of a neurocybernetic network how can all this be communicated to new genera­ possible and cheap, with the multiple connexions for tions of cybernetic neophytes? richly interactive variety sponges made cheaply Without apology, then, for I must needs be hard possible by fibre optics, and with the general axioms about this, I call upon you publically (as I have of cybernetics available in the mental tool-box, the often called on you privately) to prepare an edition mess could be ameliorated. But the proportion of of your major writings to date. You will invent a humankind wanting that amelioration is in a terrible splendid title for such a compilation, of course. But minority: I would estimate it at ninety-nine per­ I can teil you the sub-title by which new generations cent ..... So much for our 'democracies'. will certainly pass that book from hand to hand. They will say to each other: Ah-ha! What is this fellow up to? And you will hit them on the head. About a Negentropy Pump To reverse our roles for one minute: I am your junior, but I am working on my ninth book. lt is my My two discussions have ranged from the cyber­ experience that publishing a book gets 'all that netics of the neuron to the cybernetics of society; stuff' out of the way; it frees the spirit for the next and yet they have overlapped, and interpenetrated episode. Piease do not imagine, then, that my each other's domains. ln this kind of systemic con­ demand of you amounts to a request for your last tinuity and in this theoretic generality lies the will and testament. Absolutely to the contrary: when potency of cybernetics as a science in its own right. you get that stuft (so sorely needed) out of the way, lf the founding fathers, of whom you were and re­ you will be free to start again. I have the clearest main one, had not understood from the beginning expectations, because I know what I need from you, that cybernetics is a science, nothing much would but I shall not say in public what they are. have happened to consolidate the subject over the ln the meantime, I transmit to you Iove and peace last thirty years. And if the scientific Establishment from the hills of Ceredigion, had accepted in a mere thirty years that this is so, it would have been a miracle. Of course it has not. Stafford ln this Ietter I have discussed some of the cyber- The lmportance of Being Magie

Gordon Pask Director of Research, System Research Ltd Professor in Dept. Cybernetics Brunel University and the lET Open University England

To the Editor of the midriff, a demonstration which is half believed. The lights go up. As conjuror you now explain the trick; Cybernetics Forum, who invited me the Iady, still intact, shall take her bow before the to write of Heinz Von Foerster, and curtain. All the mystery is gone but for a smile that the Biological Computer Laboratory, lingers, tantalising, as upon a tiger's face. For, ladies and gentlemen, if you did not quite believe BCL. your thought of the unthinkable; did not quite take You have to be careful when writing a commen­ the demonstration of that outrage to your great tary about your boss (Patron, Professor-in-general, collective psyche as a fact; then you do not quite Maestro) and Heinz Von Foerster is all of them; believe the explanation either. much more as weil, to be honest with you. He is, Nor, ladies and gentlemen, does the man who led Iet us say, an uncle figure to our family, like an you by a sleight of hand to participate, connive elder brother, (no presumption is intended; my behind the scenes, by privy to a double take. We brothers come some 20 or 30 years my senior, in have thought the unthinkable, so Iet us do it also; age, and more than that, in wisdom). On the other that is a magic. hand, this gentleman would brook no earnest piece Heinz Von Foerster is, of course, a conjuror weil from such a scamp as I; a fellow who snored him credited, in the night clubs of Vienna, but also he is out of a monastery cell, embarrassed him (and Mai a great magician. The charm is real, but the seem­ Von Foerster, also, I suspect) by broadcasting for ingly respectable innocence should not deceive you. their local TV station (the transmission was a put­ For example, late in the 1950s, he characterised a up job where I was meant to play the statistician self organising system as one for which the rate of which, of all things I am not); by token of which I change of redundancy (or any other index of organi­ offered to buy the place, with cash, not realising, at dR sational coherence) is non negative: - ) 0. The whole that stage, the American's suspicion of real money. dT So, Mr. Editor, the response to your invitation is a thing comes dressed up in a great deal of fancy piece entitled: symbolism. For, at that stage in life, the BCL, just born, was Iabeiied "Vacuum Tube Laboratory" and, in any case, it is an inclination of the Wittgensteins The lmportance of Being Magie to surreund their brightest innovations with a peri­ meter hedge of mathematical logic. The hallmark of a great Cybernetician is perfect So innocent, so harmless, so very unassumingly showmanship, tagether with the recognition that the debonair; I recall this pronouncement especially weil show is paramount; it must go on. Yes, great scien­ because Marshall Yovitts of the ONR, had imported tist, great mathematician, sound in academic wind me, at Heinz's instigation, tagether with a massive and limb, all that stuft is commonplace and, natu­ chemical computer which, after computation and rally, is taken for granted (you must know the back producing several progeny (its intended function) end of a differential equation from the front and may boiled and finally erupted in the bridal suite where as weil forget the middle; the "input-output" it was housed (one of those conference hotels, on paradigm). the South-Shore at Chicago). Weil, the mathemati­ Magie is as follows: You ask for participation, cians and computer whiz-kids simply could not which is the privilege of Cabaret; quite discourteous understand a murky porridge full of dendrites, and in the theatre. Obtaining it, you say "Think the un­ identified it, vaguely, with some burgeoning tech- thinkable" or simply "I shall saw the Iady in half" or "dR "we are flying through the centre of the earth upon nology. Of course, they could understand - ) 0" a winged horse". There is a real, though momentary, dt even grudging, suspension of the customary habi­ and demonstrated their positively incredible ability to tudes. The saw dissects the box; the Iady is cloven, annihilate the meaning attached to the symbols. lt 18 lmportance of Being Magie

took at least a day for any really respectable scien­ occasionally eat their tails, in the most disconcert­ tist to realise that this innocent expression put ing manner possible. paid to the current, safely true-and-tried, mythology To begin with, the BCL always was distributed in of what a system is; there are still a few of them space. lt ramified throughout Europe and the Ameri­ who fail to realise that something epistemologically cas; north, south, and central. For some 15 years, odd is going on when Hmax(the maximum informa­ the central office and a motley assortment of tion/entropy) must increase to compensate for H (the meeting rooms and laboratories were located in information/entropy) approaching zero. At any rate, Urbana, lllinois, at or around the Department of Elec­ the theorem is all right. lt has been stated again, trical Engineering, on that campus of the State independently, and by a different route, just recently University. This situation struck many of his col­ (Nicolis and Protonarios, in the idiom of Prigogine leagues as odd, since Heinz Iooks more at home in and generalised bifurcation theory; also, by Caiani­ Almunster-am-Trauensee than in the great midwest. ello of Naples with his modular thermodynamics). Someone, Rowland Beurle I think, once taxed him Perhaps it is fortunate that Von Foerster's an­ with the matter, as, one summer, we stood above nouncement was generally regarded as a piece of Locarno speiibound at the rugged skyline towards decorative mathematics, just a conjuring trick. The ltaly, where surely every peak conceals a hollow hill. notion of a system in the classical sense, with nice­ Heinz Von Foerster pointed out, by way of a reply, ly defined state variables, clearly defined boundaries, that lllinois was so much better, for there are no and weil behaved trajectories, was a novel enough mountains to impede the view; a truth which cannot thought, itself. Any serious attempt to question the be denied. status quo might have been perceived as dangerous Of course, the BCL head-office was not exactly and inhibited the development of the BCL. As it typical of a Iand-grant university. The policemen with was, the BCL flourished and, over its decade and a whom I consorted in the early hours assured me half lifespan, harboured more unthinkables than any this was so; and they were tolerant enough. One other innovative Cybernetic Institution. used to break his rounds, pockets bulging with un­ For here, Von Foerster acted as a magician, gainly firearms, and calculate statistics which was a proper, in concert with Ross Ashby, Gothard lifelong ambition; some others, whom I came to Gunther, and many transient colleagues, Warren know throughout the years, confided that the prefix McCulloch, Lars Loefren, Humberto Maturana to "von" had done the trick, initially, and gained accep­ mention only a few of them. The records of the tance for a strange community of real professors, work, from these and a host of other collaborators, absent minded, world renowned, fey, notorious, con­ Murray Babcock, Al Inselberg, Paul Weston, John vinced, determined, with a hard pragmatism trans­ White .... are preserved in a microfische collec­ cending the silly numbers attached to course tion; they give a glimpse of the atmosphere prevail­ options; for them, and their families, and their ex­ ing in this truly magic place. But, in order to grasp tended family of long haired disciples (they would the quality and the consequence of this entity, "the have been called "Hippies", so my police friends BCL", you must read between the lines, and beyond said, except that they were obviously extras in a the lines; before them, and after them. For, one movie, shot amongst the Transylvania Alps). I guess thing I learned within the BCL, (one of the very von Foerster brought his mountains with him. many) is that knowledge is not depersonalised; it is Apart from head office, the rest of the operation the product of people and their coherent aggregation could be, quite readily, transposed to Paris, for into living systems (non trivially self organising example, or to Boston, or to London, or Chicago, or systems; nowadays, it might be better to say, Dayton, Ohio, or as now, Pescadero, California. systems that are "organisationally closed and infor­ Heinz's one priority Investment is communication; mationally open"; that maintain "an autopoiesis, and that is true of any organisation, when it comes to something more"). Of course, Heinz Von Foerster telephone connections, data base access, transporta­ maintained an autonomy within the BCL, whilst tion, and linkages by conference or telegraph. With being part of it, and "the BCL" I insist, is a living Heinz, the notion of communication is all that, for entity with an autonomy and personality of its own. sure, but rather more than that is implied, as weil. Of such creatures, it is generally naive to say Let me exemplify this fact. Once, not having en­ they are at such a place and time, or they begin countered each other for some years, except in here, and end, there. At l€ast, if you wish to make exchanges too briet for technical content, we met such Statements in generat (and you can say what­ in Cuernavaca with lvan lllich, at CIDOC. Most of the ever is germane of particularities and features), then BCL had been transported there, also. When last we you must think the unthinkable, of time, and place, met, neither of us had seriously examined the essen­ and individual integrity, in order to give these terms tially personalised and dynamic character of knowl­ a wider connotation than the hoary meanings, which edge, which may be imaged, statically, by several are, in other-than-magical regions, taken for granted. varieties of relational network. Failing that, such systems, viewed in Newtonian and Naturally, we were both anxious to share our latest Cartesian corrdinates, pop on and oft, in and out, thoughts; in particular to lay them on the table in Cybernetics Forum 19 front of lvan. Heinz had his usual folder, I, with my But a science? usual briefcase; but both of us also laboured You do not quite believe it is not a science, a awkwardly along with separate, travel torn, enormous science of being. scrolls. I recall Heinz saying on the way up the hill, So you might as weil get on with doing that very "you don't usually carry such a thing"; making thing. ln which, lies the magic of Cybernetics and, repartee, "weil, nor do you". a fortiori, ot that magic gentleman, Von Foerster. ln the marble pillared study which overlooks the valley, our scrolls were both unfurled; relational net­ works, of gigantic proportion; independently devised and notated, not at all like the run of semantic Mr. Editor, for this reason, though I concede your structures. True, one exposed problern solving, one point in dating the BCL head office at Urbana, exposed learning, but the conclusions were suffi­ lllinois, I would take umbrage at any suggestion that ciently in kilter for us to teil the same story, divid­ "the BCL", qua organism, occupied an epoch; that it ing the labour of the exposition. Anyhow, as Brian started, or has finished. lf you tax rne with historical Lewis has recently commented, learning is problern progression, it started long before H. Von Foerster solving, or vice versa, as you prefer; so even this and I "first met" in Namur (a provincial capital, in difference is insignificant. Belgium, famed for its Cybernetic Association); and Now communication, in this sense, is possible this was before the head office existed. When we because of a profound discovery, one of so many, "last met", earlier this year, in San Francisco, "the that Heinz Von Foerster made or catalysed. BCL" qua organism, was thriving very nicely, thank The magic goes like this: you. Think the unthinkable. "Cybernetics is a science," To understand these words except as maudlin not just a tatty hodge-podge of system-talk, arid recollections and wild imaginations is also to under­ snippets cut from automaton theory, control theory stand what Cybernetics is concerned to explain in and the like, assuming a fancy neologism. To all of sober, scientific (and still a shade poetic), terms. you this outrageous statement is supported, as a Poetic, for a science such as Cybernetics; or any rule, by demonstrating general principles (somewhat science worth its salt, the mechamism lies behind like recursion, somewhat like information, but not the publication Iist, in the body politic, a thing alive, quite either). Judgment is suspended, and the coher­ of beauty, grace, of people and maybe, or pro­ ence of these principles is half accepted. cessors, but if so, then much unlike the stupid Finally, the box is opened; the trick explained. computing engines which plague me, as I write The principles in question are, every one of them, these words, or the grooms conditioned to brush relativistic and reflective. Weil, of course, "a science up their stupid calculating habits. is to do with outside observers"; you couldn't have There is too little magic in our world; too few a "relativistic and reflective science, where the out­ magicians, too many, technically proficient conjurors, side observer came inside as a participant, could who could never hold a real audience. you?" Hence, the importance of being magic, as, Sir, lt might be an art, or a philosophy, a way of life. H. Von Foerster is. The Wholeness of the Unity: Conversations with Heinz Von Foerster

Humberto R. Maturans Facultad de Ciencias Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile

Heinz Von Foerster is a remarkable man. ln this are referential notions, and their use always implies most of his friends agree and my statement offers a relation with a domain different from the domain no novelty. What nobody knows, however, is why in which the system to which they are applied I consider him a remarkable man, and it is of this exists. The value of these notions is clear in human that I am writing in this essay to honor him. design because through their use man defines I consider Heinz Von Foerster a remarkable man domains of selection for his actions. Yet, when one because he is both in thought and in action essen­ wishes to understand living systems as autonomous tially a magician, and, hence, a man that can con­ entities, this reference to another system or domain sciously exist simultaneously in many realities. I do to which the observer must have an independent not claim that he is in this unique, I only claim that access, and with respect to which he makes the in this he is remarkable, and that this I admire in description in purposeful terms asserting that the him. system is realized through goal oriented processes, We worked together for about ten months while I is misleading. The same happens when one tries to visited him in the Biological Computer Laborstory at understand the participation of the nervous system the University of lllinois during the years 1968 and in the phenomenon of cognition. ln fact, if a pur­ 1969. Maybe that we did not work in the usual poseful description is used, and a goal is claimed sense, but we talked a Iot and embraced each other in the processes of the organism, then the observer frequently, spending many full hours conceiving a either believes that the purposeful description Tractatus Biologico-Philosophicus that we never had reveals the way in which the system described the time to write. Yet, we learned with each other, operates, or he (or she) uses the purposeful des­ and I was enriched with a most fundamental insight: cription as a metaphore. However, in the first case the understanding of the unity of the unity through the observer would commit a mistake because the the understanding of its wholeness. components of a system operate (through their As a biologist I had been interested for many properties) only on neighbourhood relations, and any years in the organization of both the living and the reference to a goal in their operation only asserts a nervous systems. This for two basic reasons: i) I cognitive relation that the observer establishes when wanted to understand living systems as autonomous he beholds simultaneously the components and the entities; and ii) I wanted to understand the participa­ system that they integrate; in the second case the tion of the nervous system in the phenomenon of purposeful description that the observer makes is cognition. I was weil versed in the ways of speaking misleading because a metaphore requires that the in purposeful terms about the organism and its listener should already know that to which it refers, organization, describing it functionally as a goal so that it only orients him or her to his or hers oriented system. I was also weil versed in the ways pre-existing knowledge, and, hence, it carries no of considering the nervous system also in purpose­ novelty in relation to how the system operates. ful terms, and talked about it as an organ of Thus, for example, if I were to say, 'The function perception and as a processor of the information of the messengar ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is to con­ received from the environment. I feit, however, that vey to the ribosomes the information needed for the the notions of purpose, function and goal were synthesis of proteins', then I would say nothing fundamentally fallacious when applied to living sys­ about how the mRNA operates in the synthesis of tems in order to explain their operation, even though proteins, or how is the protein synthesis realized, to they were euristically useful in view of the adaptive a listener that does not know how it does take character of both philogeny and ontogeny in living place. The notions of function and information systems. The notions of purpose, function and goal, (which is also referential), only address the observer Cybernetics Forum 21 to his state of knowledge and to his certainties and ticular volume (say vol. 7) of an encyclopedia (say uncertainties about the system, but do not address the Britanica) in the living room. Since a Magician's him to any feature in it. Similarly, if I were to say, performance frequently Ieads to conversations about 'ln mammals one function of the Ievei of oxygen in the supernatural, or about unique powers (that many the blood is the control of the breathing rate of people seem to desire) such as telepathy or tele­ the organism', then I would be again making a kinesis, in a few occasions the following would referential statement that reveals my view of the occur. One of Heinz's friends (the most skeptical, relations that I establish between oxygen concentra­ of course) would passionately claim that magleians tion in the blood, activity of the nervous system, could not perform really outstanding feats that and contraction of the diaphragm, in the perspective would require more than usual powers. Heinz would of the organism as a whole. This is obvious for play his role in the expected unexpected game and almost everybody, and it is not necessary to be a ask, 'such as what?'. 'Weil .. .' his triend would cybernetitian in order to realize that such an expres­ say, 'such as to make appear a playing card in a sion only has communicative value, in a metadomain particular place'. Heinz: 'What card?' Friend: 'The with respect to the operation of the components of queen of hearts'. Heinz: 'Where?' Friend: 'ln a the organism, between the persons that know how volume of Encyclopedia Britanica'. Heinz: 'ln which the system works. Yet, unless this is fully realized volume?' Friend: 'ln volume seven'. Heinz: 'Between in fact, in cases less obvious an observer may be what pages?' Friend: 'Between pages 184 and 185'. misled by the use of expressions like control, feed­ Heinz then would act a little and then say: 'Go and back or information, and act as if these expressions see'. Of course the card would be found since Heinz were telling something intrinsic to the components had placed it there before, earlier in the evening. and their operation as components, and not only How can one explain the success of this particu­ something about their relations viewed from the per­ lar event? I asked Heinz, and his answer was like spective of the whole that they integrate. I imagine this: 'Since I had several tricks prepared I had to that cybernetitians never commit this mistake, but be careful of not forgetting any of them, and of not we biologists frequently do. Therefore, at least from letting my arrangements to be disturbed, and, there­ the perspective of a biologist, it is legitimate to ask fore, I had to check in my mind frequently where the questions: 'lf to use the notions of purpose, goal everything was. This must have characterized my or information, is fallacious, how should one then whole conduct during the evening, and I must have refer to the relationship of the components and the been giving clues continuously that could very whole that they integrate?, and, 'How should one specifically orient any one in the audience sufficient­ speak in order to grasp the wholeness or unity of a ly atuned to my behaviour. He who was most criti­ system in a description that reveals the system and cal, obviously, had to be the most perceptive of not only our cognitive relations to it? At present the these clues that did not tell him anything in the answer to these questions is for me obvious. How­ semantic domain, but which oriented his attention ever, it was not obvious for me when I came to towards that to which I was continuously attending. work with Heinz Von Foerster at the University of Therefore, when he had to act, he acted according lllinois, and although he did not give me this answer to a state of attention specified through his inter­ (which I am sure he had), I found it inspired through actions with me.' This was revealing. Heinz's actions my conversations with him, and through my attempt showed his implicit understanding that he and his to answer other questions that he posed to me. ln triend operated as components of a single system fact, I think that he gave me the answer through its (apparent only to a metaobserver) that were coupled use. Let me tell of this: only through neighborhood relations determined at His actions. any moment by their properties (psychological and Heinz is indeed an accomplished magician. Yet, as otherwise), and not through relations of purpose far as I know he did not earn his living as a magi­ specified by their Intentions. cian in a professional manner, but he may weil have His understanding. retained his intellectual and ethical health through it While Heinz was President of the Wenner-Gren in Berlin, during the second World War. The following Foundation for Anthropological Research he attend­ is a revealing instance of his abilities that proved ed an international conference in anthropology at very enlightening for me. He had at his house occa­ Moscow. One of the participants in this conference sional evening parties in which he performed infor­ was Margaret Mead. Heinz likes museums; in fact, mally as a magician. Of course, he had to prepare when he and I met for the first time and became many tricks in advance, and he had to have them in friends at Leiden during the symposium on Informa­ his mind continuously, in a perfect tuning with the tion Processing in the Nervous System, in the XXII circumstance of his performance, in order to realize International Congress of Physiology, he and I them at the proper moment during the evening. One skipped the ceremony of condecoration of Professor of these tricks consisted in placing a playing-card Ralph Gerard by the Queen of Holland in order to (say the queen of hearts) between a particular pair go to visit the museums of Amsterdam. There we of pages (say between pages 184 and 185), in a par- followed the rules that visitors must accept. ln 22 Wholeness of the Unity

Moscow the situation was different. As Heinz told His questions. me, he went with Margaret Mead to visit a certain While Heinz and I were talking about the nervous museum where, at the entrance, she was told that system during our long conversations in our attempt she could not enter carrying her walking stick. At to generate a Tractatus Biologico-Philosophicus, this Margaret Mead decided not to visit the museum Heinz made me the following question: 'What is a because she would not walk without her stick; yet, stimulus for the operation of the nervous system?' a moment later, Heinz convinced her to do other­ For me this was a very interesting and revealing wise. He said something like this: 'Let me carry your question, even though it seemed formulated in very walking stick within my trousers, along one of my standard terms. As every scientist knows, the formu­ legs, Inside I shall take it out and nobody will say lation of a question defines the domain in which the a word. ln this country, whether by perfection or by answer must be given in order to be acceptable. design, people do not commit mistakes, therefore, Accordingly, I feit that I should examine Heinz's any guard that sees us Inside with the walking stick question in the domain in which it demanded an will be forced to admit that we were granted a answer, under the assumption that the way he special permit because otherwise we would not be formulated it was not accidental. This I did by evalu­ Inside with it.' They did as Heinz proposed, and as ating the question in the following manner: i) ln this he predicted nobody interfered with them. question Heinz does not distinguish between internal When Heinz told me this anecdote I did not ask and external stimuli for the operation of the nervous for an explanation. lndeed I was impressed. I ad­ system. Therefore, this question implies a view that mired his self confidence, but I admired most his considers the nervous system as a closed system clear grasping of the definitory relations of the for the operation of which the observer's distinction guard system of the museum that permitted him between internal and external perturbations of the either to interact or not to interact with it at will. nervous system is not valid, and for the operation of ln fact, this particular event was revealing for me in which internally and externally triggered changes of two respects: state (relations of activity between neurons) are i) Heinz behaved as if he knew that the guards states of the same class. ii) ln this question Heinz did not consider the totality of the museum as a leaves out the observer as a generator of the stimu­ reference for their behaviour as guards, and that lus. Therefore, this question implies the view that they acted only on local relations. Thus, although a what constitutes a stimulus for the nervous system walking stick should not be allowed to enter the is determined by the nervous system itself. ln other museum, a walking stick carried by some one that words, the question implies the view that although needs it Inside the museum is seen as something the observer may choose a stimulus from a set of that belongs in the museum, and not as something them, he does not determine what structural config­ that should not have been allowed to enter into it. uratlon operates as a stimulus because this is Yet, one can imagine that in some previous occasion determined by the structure of the nervous system. the guards received instructions from a Ieader that iii) ln this question Heinz does not specify the had a general view of what should be done, and who domain or domains in which the stimuli may exist. acted accordingly. One can also imagine, however, Therefore, this question implies the view that a stim­ that his instructions would have only specified the ulus to the nervous system is any structural con­ properties of the guards for their operation on local figuration of the medium (as the domain in which relations, without giving them his general view of the nervous system operates as a unity) that triggers their responsibilities. lf it had been otherwise Heinz in it a change of state, but it does not prejudge and Margaret Mead would have been expelled from about what constitutes the medium of a nervous the museum. system, and does not exclude the possibility that ii) Heinz, by not asking beyond the entrance the activity of the nervous system itself may re­ whether they could or not carry a walking stick, cursively constitute part of its medium. iv) Finally, behaved as if he considered that through his inter­ in this question Heinz makes no use of notions of actions with the guards he could either interact with goal, finality or function, in relation to the stimulus. the protection system of the museum as a whole, Therefore, there is nothing in this question that may or with its components as Independent entities, and suggest that the answer must include any notion as if he had chosen the latter. He, thus, revealed through which the nervous system as a totality may that he understood that the guards realized through be seen to participate in the operation of its their properlies two non-intersecting phenomenal do­ components. mains, and that they could do this without contra­ Of the many interactions and conversations that I diction because they operated only on neighborhood had with Heinz Von Foerster I have chosen these relations. This allowed Heinz and Margaret Mead to three because I find them representative in revealing move through the museum carrying what a meta­ his insights in the operation of systems, as weil as observer would have called an invisible forbidden in revealing the way he moved simultaneously in walking stick. many domains of reality. Let me expalin this. lt is apparent to me that Heinz shows, in every aspect of Cybernetics Forum 23

his conduct, either consciously or unconsciously, -A simple unity does not have organization or that he, as a magician: i) understands a system as structure. A simple unity, therefore, only exists in a composite whole that he can manipulate (if he so the space established by the properties with which wishes) either by coupling hirnself to the operation an observer, or its oparational equivalent, endows it of its components as components, interacting thus in the operation of distinction. with the system at a surface of interactions of his -From the perspective of the observer a com­ choice, or by abstracting the components from the posite unity has a double existence. ln fact, an Ob­ domain in which they constitute the system, and server sees a composite unity only to the extent through interacting with them in the domain in that he or she can define a domain from the per­ which they are independent entities, change the spective of which he or she distinguishes a simple properties of the system by changing the properties unity as composite by distinguishing the components of its components; ii) does not expect from the that integrate it. By doing this the observer makes components any "understanding" of the system that two non intersecting operations of distinction that he they constitute, nor that one should find in the relates, in a metadomain, by mapping them in his operation of the components through the interplay descriptive domain through the recursive closed oper­ of their properties through neighborhood relations, a ation of his or her nervous system in a single domain reresentation of the whole that they integrate; and of relations of neuronal activities. ln other words, for iii) understands that the wholes does not participate an observer a composite unity exists: i) as a simple in the operation of its components, and that any unity (that is, as a whole) in the space specified by interaction of the whole with its components takes its properties as a simple unity, if he or she dis­ place in a different dimension than that in which its tinguishes it as such by not distinguishing com­ components are its components. ponents in it; and ii) as a composite unity in the lt was, in one way or other, through my grasping space specified by the properties of the components of these understandings of Heinz the Magician that I that he or she distinguishes as integrating it as a reached my own insight into the wholeness of fhe simple unity, and which realize it as a whole by the unity that I summarize below: way they are organized and determine the bound­ -A unity is always defined by an observer who aries of separation through which the observer dis­ distinguishes it by a set of operations of distinction tinguishes it as a simple unity. Therefore, the des­ that specify its properties. cription of the properties of a composite unity as a -An observer can distinguish a unity, either as a simple unity necessarily does not include any refer­ simple unity that he or she cannot or chooses not ence to its components. (For example, a person as to analyze into components, and which is character­ a person can be fully described without reference ized only by the properties with which he or she to its component organs and their relations or inter­ endows it at the moment of distinction, or as a actions). But, the description of a composite unity composite unity that he or she anlyzes into com­ as a composite unity cannot be made without refer­ ponents that hold between each other a configura­ ence to it as a simple unity, because it is with tion of relations, static or dynamic, that remain respect to its operation as a simple unity that a invariant while they integrate it as a composite unity composite unity is composite and its components of a particular kind. are components that realize its organization. Accord­ - The invariant relations that hold between the ingly, a composite unity and a simple unity exist in components of a composite unity, and constitutes it operationally different phenomenal domains. as a composite unity of a particular kind, constitute -A simple unity interacts with other unities its organization. The actual components (all their through the operation of some of its properties, but properties included) and the actual relations between a composite unity interacts with other unities them that realize a composite unity as a particular through the operation of some of the properties of composite unity, constitute its structure. Therefore, its components. the relations that constitute the organization of a ln conclusion, an observer can always treat a col­ unity of a particular class are a subset of the rela­ lection of simple unities as a composite unity by tions included in the structure of a particular unity specifying an organization that defines a domain in of that class. which the collection of simple unities operates as a - The identity of a particular composite unity as a whole, and makes the simple unities that integrate its composite unity of a particular kind remains invari­ components. Yet, operationally, whenever an ant as long as its organization remains invariant. ln observer interacts with a unity, regardless of ~ other words, if the organization of a composite unity whether this is, from the perspective of a meta­ changes, the unity disintegrates. However, since the domain, a simple or a composite one, he always structure of a particular composite unity includes interacts in a space specified by the properties of more relations than its organization, the structure of the unity as a simple one. Accordingly, an observer a particular composite unity may change without it cannot interact in the same phenomenal domain losing its class identity as long as the relations that with a composite unity as a simple unity and with constitute its organization do not change. its components as components. The wholeness of a 24 Wholeness of the Unity composite unity as a relation of totality in a com­ interact through their local interactions with the position, therefore, is a cognitive relation established system that they integrate as a simple unity. lt was as a function of the manner of composition (organ­ only after I understood this that I realized that I had ization) of a collection of simple unities by an Ob­ the answer from my studies on color vision with server who beholds simultaneously, from a meta­ Gabriela Uribe and Samy Frenk, and that Heinz, even domain, the composite unity as a simple unity and without knowing it, also had it, implicit in his ques· its components as components. tion. Thus, my answer was: lf i), the nervaus system I do not pretend that what have said about is organized as a closed network of interacting unities and wholes is necessarily a novelty for cyber­ neurons that operates in a manner such that in it netitians; most likely it is definitively not. Nor do I every change in relations of neuronal activities gen· think that Heinz was not fully aware of all the con­ erates further (recursive) changes in relations of ceptual implications of his actions and questions. neuronal activities in it, and if ii), the closed network What I am saying is that the fact that Heinz dis­ operates homeostatically maintaining or generating tinguished through his conduct the several non-inter­ certain relations or paths of change of relations of secting phenomenal domains in which a composite neuronal activities in a manner determined by its unity and its components exist, and that he did this structure, then iii), any change in the relations of in a manner that revealed that for him the whole­ neuronal activities in the network that constitutes a ness of a composite unity is never a factor in the compensable perturbation (that does not disintegrate operation of its components, was for me inspiring. it) in the network, is a stimulus for the operation lt permitted me to fully understand notions such as of the nervaus system. ln an actual nervaus system control, regulation, goal or information, that are used the relations of neuronal activity or the paths of to describe the participation of the components of change of neuronal activities generated by the a system in its constitution as a whole, as notions closed neuronal network, must be subordinated to that refer only to cognitive relations generated by the maintenance of the organization of the organism the observer in a metadomain of descriptions with which it integrates. respect to the system and its components, and not This answer proved for me fundamental for my to any aspect of the actual operation of the proper­ understanding of the phenomenon of cognition that ties of the components through neighborhood inter­ I summarize in the statement: to live is to cognize. actions. Also, it made for me more obvious that the Yet, I shall not dwell now on this subject, which I way that the components acquire their properties is have treated in an article called "Biology of Cogni­ irrelevant for their operation as components, be­ tion" that appeared as a BCL Report (Report 9.0, cause it is only their actual properties at any mo­ 1970), nor shall I consider now the question of auto­ ment what determines at any moment their actual nomy in living systems that is also central for the neighborhood interactions. This I considered then, understanding of the phenomenon of cognition, and in 1968, of great relevance for the clearing of mis­ that Francisco Varela and I treat in an article called conceptions in the understanding of the relations "Autopoietic Systems", also a BCL Report (Report between a whole and its parts, particularly in the 9.4, 1975). I shall only make a few remarks about study of organisms as autonomaus entities and in the nature of the problern of cognition as I saw it the study of the participation of the nervaus system after my interactions with Heinz Von Foerster in the in the phenomenon of cognition. years 1968 and 1969. Accordingly, it was only after I understood the The fundamental difficulty that a biologist faces manner in which Heinz the Magician treated systems when trying to cope with the question 'What rela­ that I understood that the meaning of his question tions exist between the operation of the nervaus 'What is a stimulus for the operation of the nervaus system in the organism that it integrates and the system?' was 'What interactions of the components phenomenon of cognition?' is that the answer to of the nervaus system tread into the operation of this question necessarily involves his notion of real­ the nervaus system as a simple unity?' lf the mean­ ity, which obviously determines the perspective from ing of the question that Heinz had asked had not which he selects the facts that he considers rele­ been this, then the answer to his question would vant in his Observations of the organism and its have been obvious and trivial; namely: 'Any perturba­ nervaus system. Accordingly, any independent view tion of the nervaus system at the sensory surface that permits the biologist to have a more sure of the organism constitutes a stimulus'. But if the holding in one or other of these domains, is for him question asked by Heinz implied his understanding of great help. This happened to me. When I visited of systems, then it required a different answer. ln Heinz at the University of lllinois, in Urbana in 1968, fact, it required an answer that answered the refor­ I had already concluded that the nervaus system had mulation of the question as given above. That is, an to operate as a closed network of interacting answer that simultaneously revealed the nervaus neurons. Thus, when I came to the Biological Com­ system both, as a composite unity whose com­ puter Labaratory I found this view of closure of the ponents operate only on local interactions, and as a nervaus system confirmed through my interactions composite unity whose components can, in principle, with Heinz the Magician. I had reached this view Cybernetics Forum 25

while studying color vision when I discovered that pose outside of biology but under the influence of one could, in principle, generate the color space biological descriptions, a self-reproducing automaton of an animal by correlating his retinal activity with in his article "The General and Logical Theory of his color naming, in a process that entailed the Automata," was a very interesting case of this kind. oparational closing of the neuronal network by cor­ Von Neumann proposes an effective system of pro­ relating the neuronal activity of one part of the duction by a system of another of the same kind f nervaus system with the neuronal activity of the as a separate entity. Why did he call his automaton rest. My approach had been directly analytical. ln self-reproducing and used an expression used by Heinz the Magician, however, I found a Zen Master biologists to refer to cells in reproduction? lf he in the art of dealing with systems that revealed the pretended his proposition to be a model of cellular same answer in his perfect tuning with systems, self-reproduction, then it was fully inadequate without requiring (at least apparently) to go through because what his model modeled was one descrip­ the analysis of the nervaus system itself. ln these tion of what a cell does, and not what in fact takes circumstances I had to follow the notion of closure place (not even closely) when a cell undergoes in the nervaus system to its ultimate consequences, reproduction. lf that was not his aim, then the name yet, in order to do so I had to accept at least two was inadequate because what the automaton does is fundamental ones, namely: i) that whatever happened to produce another automaton of the same kind at to the nervous system was necessarily determined its side through a process of genetic determination by its structure through its operation as a closed only metaphorically similar to what takes place in a neuronal network; and ii) that if the perceptual cell. Cells do not construct other cells, they just spaces (as I found studying color vision) are gen­ divide into two of the same kind like in the frag­ erated by internal correlations in the operation of mentation of a crystal. the nervaus system as a closed network, then I had The transformation of the semantic question about to abandon the notion of reality as the indepen­ the cognitive operation of the nervaus system into a dently given to be grasped by the cognitive opera­ structural one, brings the problern of cognition tion of the nervaus system. Cognition itself became within a domain accessible to biology, which has a problern with a legitimate unexpected answer. the conceptual and methodological instruments to lf cognition as the grasping of an external reality deal with structural change in living systems. Thus, could not be accepted when attempting to under­ learning becomes ontogenic adaptation, and the stand the operation of the nervaus system, then phenomenon of learning a phenomenon of selection reality and its cognition had to be accepted as a of an ontogenic path of structural change through mode of operation of the nervaus system as a a history of interactions with invariance of organiza­ closed neuronal network. Also, if to operate with the tion in the learning system. ln order to understand notion of an external cognizable reality was inade­ what takes place in the nervaus system as a system quate, then the question 'how does the nervaus while undergoing structural change, it is essential system obtain from the medium the information to understand the nervaus system as a whole, and needed for computing the adequate Operation of the to visualize clearly the domain in which its whole­ organism in it?' should be changed into 'how is it ness takes place. Finally, the view of the nervaus that the organism and its nervaus system obtain the system as a closed network of interacting neurons structures that permit them to operate adequately in has another interesting consequence also basic for the medium in which they exist?' A semantic ques­ the understanding of the phenomenon of cognition. tion had to be changed into a structural one. lt was This can be expressed as follows: i) if the nervaus then apparent to me that this change could only be system operates as a closed network of interacting fruitful if the wholeness of a composite unity was neurons, it is apparent to an observer that the ner­ recognized to be in a metadomain with respect to vaus system operates only on internal relations, and the operation of its components because then, and only through internal relations; ii) an observer exter­ only then, the distinction between organization and nal to the organism can consider the internal states structure permits the full understanding of the of the neuronal network as representations of the phenomena of spontaneaus generation, stability and environmental circumstances under which they take change, in biological systems. Biologists have intui­ place as a result of the interactions of the organism; tively known this distinction for a lang time, and and iii), if i) and ii), then the necessary recursion they have used it in the study of evolution and in the operation of the nervaus system as a closed ontogeny without its full formulation. Yet, they have network of interacting neurons appears for an found it difficult to apply to the nervaus system and external observer as a recursive operation of the to the study of cognition because they did not have organism on representations of the environment. a clear oparational understanding of the wholeness From all this two additional consequences become of the unity, and of how a living system operated apparent to an external observer, namely: i), that as a totality. This is very apparent in the frequent everything takes place in the nervaus system within confusion between a system as a system and its the same phenomenal domain, that is, in the domain description. The seduction of Von Neumann to pro- of relations of neuronal activities; and ii), that 26 Wholeness of the Unity although the nervaus system does not operate upon representations, the conduct of the organism appears as if it did take place in many disjoint phenomenal domains. These consequences, however, can only be fully appreciated if one sees clearly that the wholeness of a composite unity takes place in a metadomain with respect to the operation of its components, which, for me, has been the funda­ mental insight that I obtained through my interac­ tions with Heinz Von Foerster. I cannot say much more in this article without going beyond the generosity of the readers, there­ fore I shall conclude inviting them to contemplate thre relevant drawings made by my sons to honor Heinz. They are: Autopoiesis, The Tree of Knowl­ edge, and Heinz the Magician. Lastly, I wish to say that I once told Heinz the Magician that I found his understanding of systems so remarkable that I feit that if he had not been a scientist he would have been a Felix Krull. But I also told him that I was more happy that he was a scientist because this permitted me both, to meet him and to admire him freely.

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The tree of knowledge, and Heinz the Magician, by Autopoiesis, by Alejandro M. Maturana. Marcelo M. Maturana. Creative Cybernetics

Lars LÖfgren University of Lund r Sweden

~

The interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and even behaviors, for example, learning automata. non-disciplinary characteristics of cybernetics is The difficult problems that were approached called what makes it a stranghold for non-biased creative for high requirements on the languages used. The thinking about the difficult problems that face us as dangers of formalizing away essences of cybernetic explaining and planning creatures. At the same time, inquiry was clearly understood. Connections between however, these characteristics make cybernetics a circularities and paradoxes were developed in topic that is difficult to fit into any traditional aca­ attempts to characterize those circularities that demic organization. ln spite of these difficulties, could be explained by the process of unfolding, or Heinz Von Foerster succeeded in establishing a live­ by consistent axiomatization. ly, productive, interdisciplinary group in an academic ln this way phenomena such as decision-making milieu. He was able to establish the Biological and planning have been studied, resulting in degrees Computer Laboratory, BCL, at the University of of explanatory value. We explain not only for pre­ lllinois at a time when the University was young in dictability, which makes us decide and plan, because the sense that rigid departmental classifications did when prediction is impossible, we may plan for not yet exist. Understandability (describability on a higher Ievei), To be sure, Heinz played an active role in the which also may make us decide and plan. The very development of cybernetics even before the days of idea of explaining why we explain indicates a cyber­ BCL. I am thinking of his work in the Josiah Macy netic circle, the unfolding of which Ieads into open Symposia on Cybernetics in the early 1950's which interdisciplinary processes, creating temporarily attempted to stimulate research and to promote sufficient high Ieveis of explanation. effective communication across the departmental I believe that cybernetics should retain this inde­ walls which tend to isolate the professions and pendent, interdisciplinary, creative character. Only specialties from one another. Heinz edited the pro­ with this will it have a chance of breaking the ceedings with Margaret Mead and Hans Teuber as barriers that disciplinary subjects erect in their assistant editors. The transactions [1] bear the sub­ development. Only then will it be possible to apply title: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in present-day knowledge to the knowledge process Biological and Social Systems. itself to obtain the higher Ievei of knowledge that ln the early and late 1960's, when I was a member appears necessary for tomorrow. of BCL, I personally experienced Heinz's stimulating The influential, stimulating power behind Heinz talents. From these periods, I recall in particular Von Foerster's creative work [2] has indeed proved how a central cybernetic idea, that of circularity, the value of his cybernetic philosophy. I hope that matured in the lively BCL discussions, and was ob­ his recent change of platform will make it possible served in phenomena like self-organization, self­ for him to continue his basic research into high reproduction, self-description, and self-repair. Heinz order cybernetics, not only as a theoretical exten­ hinted at circularities by noticing that concepts I ike sion, but also with applications as a continued high Observation, description, and explanation cannot order stimulation of the field.

~ really be objective (as a classical thought), but are themsslves subject to Observation, description, and explanation. He developed first order cybernetics as cybernetics of observed systems and second order REFERENCES cybernetics as cybernetics of observing systems, 1. Von Foerster, H. (editor): Cybernetics. Transac­ thus suggesting how circularities in description tions of the Tenth Conference, April 22-24, 1953. could be unfolded or explained. The Josiah Macy Foundation, New York, N.Y. Recursive function theory helped the understand­ 2. Von Foerster, H. et. al.: The Goileeted Works of ing of cybernetically established circularities and the the Biological Computer Laboratory. lllinois Blue­ links to Turing machine theory and automata theory. print Corporation, 821 Bond, Peoria, IL 61603 Automata models were exhibited with very complex (1976). With Heinz Von Foerster

Edwin Schlossberg Johnson Hili Road Chester, Mass. 01011

Part One-Parts cratically mechanized. The verbal descriptions of each group were written in a variety of notations To recall one calls-to recreate one creates-to none of which alluded to the referent. Games were remember one becomes. Where is there a moment played in the open areas and the consequence of when one can call, create, and become fully enough one groups' activity did not affect the consequence to revive the attitude of wonder and enjoyment of any other group. This provoked the calling of a necessary in the auspices here organized? general meeting among all the voices to which only Parts assemble, no continuity-fearing that the one magician attended. sense of continuity is a sense of exclusion fiercely lf the resultant of the process was adjusted to rejected. any obvious need the communications channels Excitement and wonder need no purpose. were obstructed and the laughter emerged. Once the Teleological descriptions require meta-analysis hum of the machines was heard, everyone adjourned which requires a meta-community which requires a to the other room to participate in the metabolics. meta-meta-analyst. On the metaphoric ocean the waves are coming Heinz Von Foerster-meta-man. Having en- faster than ever and the necessity for descriptions 3 countered, becoming metameta-man. Now-Meta of the groups becomes ever more present. The maps man. of the areas to be entered upon reflect only the Being most human one is most invisible being eddying tides and without the numbers necessary both the context and content of the process. for notation. Despite the vastly improved labelling He is always very interested in eyes. There are techniques the job performed has only reached to several parts to this interest. One of them is the yes the very fringes of sensibility. Despite the constant in eyes. request for failure tales, this one ends with the What is memory that it has Heinz's sight? excitement of possibility walking towards the control 1 have always been interested to hear him des­ panels with delight and humor, never positing the cribe a new aerial photograph of a new paradigm. purpose as an excuse for ignorance. Even if the groundwork has not been done, he fills the absences with brilliance.

A Short Dictionary Part Two-Stories As. Verb, Being part of. Once upon a time there were more than two of Always. Verb, Non definable construct everything. There was the recurrent need to decide His. Ver, Description of process embodied in which was part of a group and which was not part celebrant. of a group. The search required not only Observation Mind. Verb, Unalterably pursuing the most intricate but the energetic willingness not to assume. Had and generous explanation. the groups been Iabeiied too early, the excitement lnsight. Verb, Extraordinary ability to tune to the might have waned. Had the total count been an­ needs and thoughts of several generations without nounced, the justification would have been distortion. demanded. Weather entered and intruded constantly forcing the postponement of exercises unrelated to the intention. Each morning the arrival of the possi· bility dislodged the purpose and caused ripples of Part Three -Notes derision from those sources uninvolved in the pro­ Dear Heinz, cess. As the climate changed there occurred several You are the one man I know whose life is the very cold days on which the clarity of the air evidence of a celebration no words could duplicate became a model of precision. This did not disturb or model. the progress in any way. Sincerely, All the clocks were set at varying rates idiosyn- Edwin Schlossberg Cybernetics Forum 29

P.S. to write to you about. The game involves setting up I have had a dream over many years and never a new rule-making procedure such that the way had the sleep for it. During this dream there is an player 1 plays determines how player 2 plays and idea auction. People get up to the podium and des­ player 3 and so on. Each player making those addi­ cribe what they are thinking about and then the tions that become the moment. This game only others bid on the ideas as to what they think their works if there are 238,000 players and they are all worth is. You are the auctioneer and also the one the parents of the new children born onto the earth whose ideas bound the process. This is an auction, each day. perhaps it will not be a dream. The end, the success of any set of fine ideas is Lately a thought occurs over and over. lt involves that they become invisible because they are inte­ embarking on the process of creating an intelligent grated into the flow of thought of the culture. As and evolving community of people whose concerns if the culture were learning to ride a bicycle-once are not to protect their ideas but to share them the learning took place, the ideas and instructions attempting to make the process of discovery into could be abandoned, exchanged for the feeling of the process of discovery again rather than the bitter moving, the wind in one's hair, the muselas extend­ competitive struggle of musical papers that it has ing. lt is difficult, at any moment, to Iet go, to Iet become. Your work and the people araund whom ideas go, wondering if they are invisible because tor­ and among you have worked are so attractive an gatten, or because unused, or because they are pul­ example. sating. ln my mind what you have said is invisible I thought of a game which I have been meaning and making my fingers move.

r Heinz Von Foerster's Gontributions To The Development of Cybernetics

Kenneth L. Wilson Precision Circuits, lnc. Eatontown, NJ 07724

Heinz Von Foerster has made substantial contri­ theory were used to explore and explain the behavior butions in six major areas: Biological Computers, of biological nervous systems. Von Foerster con­ Self-Organizing Systems, Perception, Memory, Epis­ tributed to this work with the writing of some basic temology, and Ethics. Of course, he also worked out­ papers on hemeostasis and bionies (17,23,42,48). * ln side these fields and in some cases several of these all of Von Foerster's work, he attempted to point areas overlapped. Nevertheless, I will try here to out new directions for study and thought. Later outline the major works of Professor Von Foerster papers in this area set down some of the basic in these six areas. principles of computation in neural networks (51).

*The numbers refer to the List of Publications of Biological Computers Heinz Von Foerster which follows this article. As a member of the early conferences on Cyber­ netics sponsored by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, Professor Von Foerster contributed to the formative Self·Organizing Systems stages of the discipline that is now called Cyber­ Cybernetics has always been closely aligned with netics. He edited the transactions of the five Macy general systems theory, using many of its concepts conferences and was responsible for attaching in the description of biological and mechanical Norbert Weiner's word "Cybernetics" to the confer­ systems. Of great importance to the cyberneticists ence title "Circular Causal and Feedback Mechan­ is the concept of the self-organizing system. These isms in Biological and Social Systems." lnspired by systems have the peculiar property of generating these conferences, Von Foerster continued his inves­ organized structure from a disorganized universe. tigations into this new field by creating the Biologi­ Thus, a living system springs from elements in cal Computer Laboratory and publishing several nature which have no organization of themselves. papers centered around the early Cybernetic concept The early cyberneticists noted that living systems of biological computers. are self-organizing systems. Models of simple self­ ln the early 50's the analogies between the human organizing systems could thus be used in describing brain and the infant field of digital computers com­ certain features of living systems. prised a new and unexplored realm. But where did Professor Von Foerster wrote two major papers this study belong? Biologists did not study digital which clarify many of the notions of systems theory computers and electrical engineers did not study with respect to cybernetics. ln "On Self-Organizing biology. Attempts to explain the need for an inter­ Systems and Their Environments" (21) Von Foerster disciplinary study left university administrators with shows his classical physics background by pointing blank stares. out that there is no such thing as a self-organizing lnto this void, Von Foerster molded a laboratory system. Such a system would violate the second law for the study of biology and computers: the Biologi­ of thermodynamics. What is assumed when talking cal Computer Laboratory. The early work in this of self-organizing systems is the existence of an laboratory concentrated on establishing links in the environment which provides a pool of energy and analogies between biological systems and digital organization from which the self-organizing system computer systems. Concept from general systems can draw. Expanding on this concept. Von Foerster theory, information theory, and control systems describes the relation of entropy to systems which Cybernetics Forum 31

are said to be self-organizing. He gives a lucid treat­ possesses some order. The changes of the internal ment of Schroedinger's comments on the principles organization of this computer take place in such a of order and the mechanics of a self-organizing way that some constraints in the environment which system via Maxwell's demon. To these concepts of are responsible for its orderliness are mapped into order from disorder and order from order, he adds a the computer's structure. This homomorphism "envi­ new concept of order from noise. lt is hypothesized ronment-system" reveals itself as "memory" and that if elements are constituted in certain manners, permits the system to function as an inductive the system as a whole can gain order through the inference computer. States of the environment which injection of noise. A simple example of this behavior are, so to say, "incompatible with the laws of is provided by specially magnetized blocks which, nature" are also incompatible with output states of when thrown into a box and shaken, form a complex the computer." structure. Von Foerster attacks the theory of memory as a The second of Von Foerster's writings in systems storage type of mechanism in three ways. First, he theory is entitled "Molecular Ethology" (61). This shows that the amount of information that comes lengthy paper gives a thorough description of finite into the brain through the eyes, ears, nose, etc., state machines and their application to cybernetic is much larger than even the number of molecules concepts. He developed a new concept of a finite in the brain. This type of storage memory would be function machine which provided greater flexibility in filled up in a short time. Further, he shows that the describing complex systems. A large section of this number of possible networks of Connections in the paper is devoted to the applications of systems brain is a much larger number. This would argue for theory in biophysics. the network approach. Secondly, Von Foerster points out that memory as we experience it is not at all like a recording device. For example, suppose I were Memory to take a black box with me to the symphony and then bring it home. lf I inquired of it at breakfast Professor Von Foerster was an early opponent of the next morning what it heard, it might give two cybernetic theorists who tried to make analogies be­ very different answers. lf it had stored the informa­ tween human memory and the "memory" of a com­ tion of the symphony, I would get an exact, or close puter. The computer makes use of a mass storage to exact, repeat of the symphony. This is something system where sequences of binary digits are record­ like a tape recorder, a storage mechanism. On the ed and then later retrieved. Human memory is a other hand, if the box spoke to me and said that much more complex mechanism. it had heard a very nice rendition of Beethovan's ln several major papers (47,52,59,63) Professor Von fifth symphony and that the horn section was lousy Foerster approaches the problern of memory as a I might suspect that my black box contained a mid­ process of cognition. Memory must be understood get who had listened to the symphony and was now as an integral part of thinking, reasoning and per­ saying something about his memory of that ception. ln a digital computer two kinds of memory symphony. Thirdly, the proposition that memory is can be clearly distinguished by their difference in akin to the storage system of a computer begs the structure and in function; namely, the storage sys­ question of "who is looking." That is, what is the tem and the program. As Von Foerster points out, nature of the entity that is looking at all this stored "Unfortunately, some anthropomorphically inclined information and making sense of it. The concept of quipsters have dubbed the storage system the holographic memory is particularly susceptible "memory", and henceforth some naive psycholo­ to this criticism. This theory, and similar storage gists-and, alas, some neurophysiologists-who be­ type theories of memory, do not deal with the prob­ lieved the engineers to know what they were talking lems of determining the nature of the demon run­ about, kept looking for analogues of magnetic tapes, ning around in the head that is looking at this discs, cores and drums within the nervous system." stored information, interpreting it, and acting upon Von Foerster proposes that human memory is more it. akin to the changing of a computer's program. "Memory" is the network itself and a particular memory is generated from the network's structure. Problems of Perception '" This view rejects assertion that memory is similar to the storage system of a computer. "At issue is Professor Von Foerster was one of the first to an important property of the functioning of our ner­ apply the techniques of cybernetics to the problems vous system. We call it "memory." ln looking for of perception. ln the papers dealing with perception mechanisms that can be made responsible for this (42,44,65) Von Foerster investigates the mechanics of property, I strongly suggested that we not Iook upon perception from a biological and theoretical view­ this system as if it were a recording device. lnstead point. He analyzes the possible functioning of I have proposed looking at this system as if it were neurons in a network such that computations which a computer whose internal organization changes as are done by that network could be called perception. a result of its interaction with an environment that Some of the first neural receptor models were cre- 32 Development of Cybernetics ated at the Biological Computer Laboratory under Ethics the direction of Professor Von Foerster. Though this The scientific work of Professor Von Foerster is field of study has now gone far past these early never far from his ethics (72,78,86). He has always studies, Von Foerster's work in this area is funda· been of the opinion that cyberneticians should prac­ mental in linking neurophysiology with automata tice cybernetics. A capsulation of his thoughts on theory. ethics is found in a beautifully written paper entitled "Perception of the Future and the Future of Percep­ tion" (73). For an abstract to this paper Professor Von Epistemology Foerster chose the following quote from Herbert Some of Professor Von Foerster's most important Brun: "The definition of a problern and the action work is in the area of epistemology. The first of his taken to solve it largely depend on the view which three major papers (63,75,77) "Thoughts and Notes the individuals or groups that discovered the prob­ on Cognition," is an overview of epistemological lern have of the system to which it refers. A prob­ considerations that affect an organism and its envi­ lern may thus find itself defined as a badly inter­ ronment. The relationship between the "sensorium" preted output, or as a faulty output of a faulty out­ and the "motorium" of an organism is investigated put device, or as a faulty output due to a mal­ with some elementary mathematical models such function in an otherwise faultlass system, or as a that basic Statements can be made about the correct but undesired output from a faultlass and organism in an environment. The second work, "An thus undesirable system. All definitions but the last Epistemology for Living Things," contains the frame­ suggest corrective action; only the last definition work for a new epistemological system. This system suggests change, and so presents an unsolvable draws heavily on the work of Humberto Maturana problern to anyone opposed to change." Von and Ludwig Whittgenstein. The third work, "On Con­ Foerster follows this quote with the following para­ structing a Reality", proposes that "The environment graph: "Truisms have the disadvantage that by dull­ as we perceive it is our invention." Von Foerster ing the senses they obscure the truth. Almost no­ presents evidence that cognition is a continuously body will become alarmed when told that in times recursive computation of descriptions of reality. He of continuity the future equals the past. Only a few then shows that the recursive computations of des­ will become aware that from this follows that in criptions are computations of further descriptions times of socio-cultural change the future will not be and the term "reality" need not enter into the like the past. Moreover with a future not clearly per­ matter. And since descriptions are a form of compu­ ceived, we do not know how to act. With only one tation, cognition is thus the recursive computation certainty left, if we don't act ourselves, we shall be of computations of computations. acted upon. Thus, if we wish to be subjects rather than objects, what we see now, that is, our percep­ tion, must be foresight rather than hindsight." List of Publications by Heinz Von Foerster

1. "Uber das Leistungsproblem beim Klystron", 16. With E.W. Ernst, O.T. Purl, M. Weinstein. Ber. Lilienthai Ges. Luftfahrtforschung, 155, 1-5 "Oscillographie analyse d'un faisceau hyperfre­ (1943). quences", LE V/OE, 70, 341-351 (1957). 2. Das Gedachtnis: Eine quantenmechanische 17. "Basic Concepts of Hemeostasis", Homeostatic Untersuchung, F. Deuticke, Vienna, 40 pp. Mechanisms, Upton, New York, pp. 216-242 (1948). (1958). 3. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Confer­ 18. "Some Aspects in the Design of Biological ence (ed.), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New Computers", The 2nd International Congress on York, 202 pp. (1949). Cybernetics, Association International de Cyber­ 4. "Quantum Mechanical Theory of Memory", netique; Namur, 240-255 (1958). Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Confer­ 19. With G. Brecher and E.P. Cronkite, "Production, ence, H. Von Foerster (ed.), Josiah Macy Jr. Ausreifung und Lebensdauer der Leukozyten", Foundation, New York, pp. 112-145 (1949). Physiologie und Physiopathologie der weissen 5. With Margaret Mead and H.L Teuber, Cyber­ Blutzellen, H. Braunsteiner (ed.), George Thieme netics: Transactions of the Seventh Conference Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 188-214 (1959). (eds.), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New York, 20. "Some Remarks on Changing Populations", The 251 pp. (1950). Kinetics of Gellu/ar Proliferation, F. Stohlman 6. With Margaret Mead and H.L Teuber, cyber­ Jr. (ed.), Grune and Stratton, New York, pp. netics: Transactions of the Eighth Conference 382-407 (1959). (eds.), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New York, 21 . "On Self-Organizing Systems and Their Environ­ 240 pp. (1951). ments", Se/f-Organizing Systems, M.C. Yovits 7. With M.L Babcock and D.F. Holshouser, "Diode and S. Cameron (eds.), Pergarnon Press, London, Characteristic of a Hollow Cathode", Phys. pp. 31-50 (1960). Rev., 91, 755 (1953). 22. With P.M. Mora and LW. Amiot, "Doomsday: 8. With Margaret Mead and H.L Teuber, Cyber­ Friday, November 13, AD 2026", Science, 132, netics: Transactions of the Ninth Conference 1291-1295 (1960). (eds.), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New York, 23. "Bionics", Bionies Symposium, Wright Air 184 pp. (1953). Development Division, Technical Report 60-600, 9. With E.W. Ernst, "Eiectron Bunches of Short J. Steele (ed.), pp. 1-4 (1960). Time Duration", J. of Applied Phys., 25, 674 24. "Some Aspects in the Design of Biological (1954). Computers", in Sec. Inter. Congress on Cyber­ 10. With LR. Bloom, "Ultra-High Frequency Beam netics, Namur, pp. 241-255 (1960). Analyzer", Rev. of Sei. lnst., 25, 640-653 (1954). 25. With G. Pask, "A Predictive Model for Self­ 11. "Experiment in Popularization," Nature, 174, Organizing Systems", Part 1: Cybernetica, 3, 4424, London (1954). pp. 258-300; Part II: Cybernetica, 4, pp. 20-55 12. With Margaret Mead and H.L Teuber, Cyber­ (1961). netics: Transactions of the Tenth Conference 26. With P.M. Mora and LW. Amiot, "Doomsday", (eds.), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, New York, Science, 133, 936-946 (1961). 100 pp. (1955). 27. With D.F. Holshouser and G.L Clark, "Micro­ 13. With O.T. Purl, "Velocity Spectrography of Elec­ wave Modulation of Light Using the Kerr tron Dynamics in the Traveling Field", Journ. of Effect", Journ. Opt. Soc. Amer., 51, 1360-1365 App/. Phys., 26, 351-353 (1955). (1961). 14. With E.W. Ernst, "Time Dispersion of Secondary 28. With P.M. Mora and LW. Amiot, "Population Electron Emission", Journ. of Appl. Phys., 26, Density and Growth", Science, 133, 1931-1937 781-782 (1955). (1961). 15. With M. Weinstein, "Space Charge Effects in 29. With G. Brecher and E.P. Cronkite, "Production, Dense, Velocity Modulated Electron Beams", Differentiation and Lifespan of Leukocytes", Journ. of Applied Phys., 27, 344-346 (1956). The Physiology and Pathology of Leukocytes, 34 List of Publications

H. Braunsteiner (ed.), Grune & Stratton, New 46. "Physics and Anthropology", Current Anthro­ York, pp. 170-195 (1962). pology, 5, 330-331 (1964). 30. With G.W. Zopf, Jr., Principles of Self-Organiza­ 47. "Memory without Record", The Anatomy of tion: The 11/inois Symposium on Theory and Memory, D.P. Kimble (ed.), Science and Be· Technology of Self-Organizing Systems (eds.), havior Books, Palo Alto, pp. 388-433 (1965). Pergarnon Press, London, 526 pp. (1962). 48. "Bionics Principles", Bionics, R.A. Willaume 31. "Preface" in Principles of Self-Organization: (ed.), AGARD, Paris, pp. 1-12 (1965). Transcripts of the University of lllinois Sym­ 49. "From Stimulus to Symbol", Sign, Image, posium on Self-Organization, Pergarnon Press; Symbol, G. Kepes (ed.), George Braziller, New London, vii-xi (1962). York, pp. 42-61 (1966). 32. "Communication Amongst Automata", Amer. 50. "Computers in Mucis", Datamation, Val. 12 (10), Journ. Psychiatry, 118, 865-871 (1962). 106-111 (1966). 33. With P.M. Mora and LW. Amiot, " 'Projections' 51. "Computation in Neural Nets", Currents Mod. vs. 'Forecasts' in Human Population Studies", Bio/., 1, 47-93 (1967). Science, 136, 173-174 (1962). 52. "Time and Memory", lnterdisciplinary Perspec­ 34. "Biological ldeas for the Engineer", The New tives of Time, R. Fischer (ed.), New York Aca· Scientist, 15, 173-17 4 (1962). demy of Sciences, New York, pp. 866-873 (1967). 35. "Bio-Logie", Biological Prototypes and Synthe­ 53. With G. Gunther, "The Logical Structure of Evo­ tic Systems, E.E. Bernard and M.A. Kare (eds.), lution and Emanation", /nterdisciplinary Per­ Plenum Press, New York, pp. 1-12 (1962). spectives of Time, R. Fischer (ed.), New York 36. "Circuitry of Clues of Platonic Ideation", Academy of Sciences, New York, pp. 874-891 Aspects of the Theory of Artificial lntelligence, (1967). C.A. Muses (ed.), Plenum Press, New York, pp. 54. "Biological Principles of Information Storage 43-82 (1962). and Retrieval", Electronic Handling of Informa­ 37. "Perception of Form in Biological and Man­ tion: Testing and Evaluation, Allen Kent et al. Made Systems", Trans. I.D.E.A. Symp., E.J. (eds.), Academic Press, London, pp. 123-147 Zagorski (ed.), University of lllinois, Urbana, (1967). pp. 10-37 (1962). 55. With A. Inselberg and P. Weston, "Memory and 38. With W.R. Ashby and C.C. Walker, "lnstability lnductive lnference", Cybernetic Problems in of Pulse Activity in a Net with Threshold", Bionics, Proceedings of Bionies 1966, H. Nature, 196, 561-562 (1962). Oestreicher and D. Moore (eds,), Gordon & 39. "Bionics", McGraw-Hi/1 Yearbook Science and Breach, New York, pp. 31-68 (1968). Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 148-151 56. With J. White, L. Peterson and J. Russell, Pur· (1963). posive Systems, Proceedings of the 1st Annual 40. "Logical Structure of Environment and its Inter­ Symposium of the American Society for Cyber­ na! Representation", Trans. Internat'/ Design netics (eds.), Spartan Books, New York, 179 pp. Conf. Aspen. R.E. Eckerstrom (ed.), H. Miller, (1968). lnc., Zeeland, Mich., pp. 27-38 (1963). 57. With J.W. Beauchamp, Music by Computers 41. With W.R. Ashby and C.C. Walker, "The Essen­ (eds.), John Wiley & Sons, New York, 139 pp. tial lnstability of Systems with Threshold, and (1969). Some Possible Applications to Psychiatry", 58. "Sounds and Music", Music by Computers, H. Nerve, Brain and Memory Models, N. Wiener Von Foerster and J.W. Beauchamp (eds.), John and J.P. Schade (eds.), Elsevier, Amsterdam, Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 3-10 (1969). pp. 236-243 (1963). 59. "What is Memory that it May have Hindsight 42. "Molecular Bionics", Information Processing by and Foresight as Weil?", The Future of the Living Organisms and Machines, H.L. Brain Sciences, Proceedings of a Conference Oestreicher (ed.), Aerospace Medical Division, held at the New York Academy of Medicine, Dayton, pp. 161-190 (1964). S. Bogach (ed.), Plenum Press, New York, pp. 43. With W.R. Ashby, "Biological Computers", Bio­ 19-64 (1969). astronautics, K.E. Schaefer (ed.), The Macmillan 60. "Laws of Form", (Book Review of Laws of Co., New York, pp. 333-360 (1964). Form, G. Spencer Brown), Whole Earth Catalog, 44. "Form: Perception, Representation and Symbol­ Portola Institute; Palo Alto, California, 14, ization", Form and Meaning, N. Perman (ed.), (Spring 1969). Soc. Typographie Arts, Chicago, pp. 21-54 61. "Molecular Ethology, An lmmodest Proposal for (1964). Semantic Clarification", Molecu/ar Mecha· 45. "Structural Models of Functional lnteractions", nisms in Memory and Learning, S. Bogach (ed.), Information Processing in the Nervaus System, Plenum Press, New York, pp. 213-248 (1970). R.W. Gerard and J.W. Duyff (eds.), Excerpta 62. With A. Inselberg, "A Mathematical Model of Medica Foundation, Amsterdam, The Nether­ the Basilar Membrane", Mathematical Bio­ lands, pp. 370-383 (1964). sciences, 7, pp. 341-363, (1970). Cybernetics Forum 35

63. "Thoughts and Notes on Cognition", Cognition: 79. "Kybernetik einer Erkenntnistheorie", Kybernetic A Multiple View, P. Garvin (ed.), Spartan Books, und Bionik, W.D. Keidel, W. Handler & M. New York, pp. 25-48 (1970). Spring (eds.), Oldenburg; Munich, p. 27-46, 64. "Bionics, Critique and Outlook", Principles and (1974). Practice of Bionics, H.E. von Gierke, W.D. 80. "Epilogue to Afterwords", After Brockman: A Keidel and H.L. Oestreicher (eds.), Technivision Symposium, ABYSS, 4, 68-69 (1974). Service, Slough, pp. 467-473 (1970). 81. With R. Howe, "Cybernetics in lllinois" (Part 65. "Embodiments of Mind" (Book Review of Em­ One), Forum, 6, (3), 15-17 (1974); (Part Two), bodiments of Mind, Warren S. McCulloch), Com­ Forum, 6, (4), 22-28 (1974). puter Studies in the Humanities and Verbal 82. "Culture and Biological Man" (Book Review of Behavior, 111 (2), pp. 111-112 (1970). Culture and Biological Man, by Elliot D. Chap­ 66. With L. Peterson, "Cybernetics of Taxation: The ple), Current Anthropology, 15, (1), 61 (1974). Optimization of Economic Participation", Journal 83. With R. Howe, "lntroductory Comments to Fran­ of Cybernetics, 1 (2), pp. 5-22 (1970). cisco Varela's Calculus for Self-Reference", lnt. 67. "Obituary for Warren S. McCulloch", ASC J. General Systems, 2, 1-3 (1975). News/etter, 3, (1), (1970). 84. "Two Cybernetics Frontiers" (Book Review of 68. "Computing in the Semantic Domain", Annals Two Cybernetics Frontiers by Stewart Brand) of the New York Academy of Science, 184, The Co-Evolutionary Quarterly, 2, (Summer), 143 239-241' (1971 ). (1975)_ 69. "Preface" in Shape of Community by S. Cher­ 85. "Oops; Gaia's Cybernetics Badly Expressed", mayeff and A. Tzonis, Penguin Books, Salti­ The Co-Evolution Quarterly, 2, (Fall), 51 (1975). more, p. xvii-xxi (1971). 86. "The Needs of Perception for the Perception of 70. Interpersonal Relational Networks (ed.); CIDOC Needs", American Institute of Architects, Altan­ Cuaderno No. 1014, Centro lntercultural de Doc­ ta, 1975 (BCL Fiche #105/6). umentacion, Cuernavaca, Mexico, 139 pp. (1971). 87. "La Percapeion de Futuro y el Futuro de Per­ 71. "Technology: What Will lt Mean to Librarians?" cepcion" Communicacion, Barcelona (1975). 11/inois Libraries, 53, (9), 785-803 (1971). 88. "Sobre Sistemas Autoorganizados y sus Contor­ 72. "Responsibilities of Competence", Journal of nos", Epistemologia de Ia Comunicacion, Cybernetics, 2, (2) 1-6 (1972). Juan Antonio Bofil (ed.), Fernando Torres, 73. "Perception of the Future and the Future of Valencia, p. 187-214 (1976). Perception", lnstructional Science, Vol. 1 (1), 89. "Objects: Tokens for (Eigen)-Behaviors", ASC 31-43 (1972). Cybernetics Forum, VIII (3,4) 91-96 (1976). 74. With P.E. Weston, "Artificial lntelligence and 90. "Formalisation de Certains Aspects de I'Equili­ Machines that Understand", Annual Review of bration de Structures Cognitives", Epistemolo­ Physical Chemistry, H. Eyring, C.J. Christensen, gie Genetique et Equilibration", B. lnhelder, R. H.S. Johnston (eds.), Annual Reviews, lnc.; Palo Garcias and J. Voneche (eds.), Delachaux et Alto, pp. 353-378 (1973). Niestle, Neuchatel, p. 76-89 (1977). 75. "On Constructi ng a Real ity", Environmental 91. "Second Order Concepts: An Elliptical Parabel Design Research, Vol. 2, F.E. Preiser (ed.), of Circular Causality", General Systems Bulletin, Dowdon, Hutchinson &Ross; Stroudberg, pp. 7, (2), 7-11 Winter 1977). 35-46 (1973). 92. "The Curious Behavior of Complex Systems: 76. With P. Arnold, B. Alton, D. Rosenfeld, K. Lessons from Biology", Futures Research, H.A. Saxena, "Diversity: H-A Measure Complement­ Unstone and W.H.C. Simmonds (eds.), Addison­ ing Uncertainty H", SYSTEMA, No. 2, January Wesley, Reading, p. 104-113, (1977). 1974. 93. "On 'Where Do We Go From Here?", Proceed­ 77. "Notes pour un epistemologie des objets ings of the International Symposium on the vivants", in L'unite de l'homme, Edgar Morin History and Philosophy of Technology, G. and Massimo Piatelli-Palmerini (eds.), Edition du Bugliarello (ed.), University of lllinois Press Seuil; Paris, 401-417 (1974). (1978). 78. "Giving with a Purpose: The Cybernetics of 94. "Cybernetics of Cybernetics", Communication Philanthropy", Occasional Paper No. 5, Center and Control in Society, K. Krippendorf (ed.) for a Voluntary Society, Washington, D.C., 19 Gordon & Breach, New York, p. 1-4 (1978). pp. (1974). The Work of Visiting Cyberneticians in the Biological Computer Labaratory

Kenneth L. Wilson Precision Circuits, lnc. Eatontown, NJ 07724

Three years ago Heinz Von Foerster retired from tion which, when necessary, may be communicated the University of lllinois. With his departure, the via signs or symbols to other organisms of the same Biological Computer Labaratory (BCL) closed its or different kind?" doors as a functional Iab at the University. For two The Biological Computer Labaratory (BCL) of the decades Von Foerster and the BCL strongly pro­ University of lllinois was founded in 1957 to address moted the development of traditional cybernetics, precisely this question. BCL's main lines of research and generated many new, exciting ideas which have been to explore the principles of computation further stimulated interest in cybernetics. * in living organisms, to establish the structural and The following section attempts to give a brief functional organization of such "biological Compu­ overview of the work done at BCL. ters," and to utilize this knowledge in the design Living organisms perpetually compute through and construction of cognitive systems, conversant their sensory inputs complex abstractions, relations, systems, inductive inference machines, etc. Research and decisions in order to determine the appropriate has been conducted on almost all Ieveis of inquiry, actions which will allow them to survive in a hostile from studies in epistemology, logic, linguistics, and capricious environment. They leave the naive mathematics, neurophysiology, etc., to computer sim· task of computing sums, products, differences, frac­ ulations, speech recognition and other electronic in· tions, square roots, log tables, Sessel functions, formation systems. The senior members of the group etc., to machines, for their nervaus systems are carried joint appointments with various departments busy solving much more sophisticated computational of the University, and the graduate students who problems: for instance, identifying quickly and relia· participated in these studies majored in fields that bly whether entities in their environment are range from philosophy, psychology, and linguistics desirable or dangerous, predicting within a certain to physics and electrical engineering. degree of confidence the future behavior of these Among the cyberneticists who worked with Von entities once identified and, ultimately, reacting, Foerster in the BCL were W. Ross Ashby, Gotthard interacting and relating to these entities once they Gunther, Lars Lofgren, Humberto Maturana, Gordon are identified and understood. Of course, from a Pask, and Paul Weston. The following paragraphs philosophical point of view the problems of identifi· give a descriptive picture of the work done by each cation and of prediction have the same root, since of these people. identifying an object means essentially predicting the invariance of some of its properties over some period of time. However, identification and prediction W. R. Ashby are meaningful only if what is being identified and predicted is significant for the maintenance of the W. Ross Ashby was the originator of cybernetics integrity of the organism who interacts with these as it is known today. He provided an interpretation entities. Today, during the "information explosion" of Shannon's information theory in terms of the in which we are ever more forced to process infor­ theory of sets as developed by N. Bourbalse. Thus mation generated and absorbed by man, a question he was able to bring the entire and powerful appara­ arises: "How have living organisms solved this prob· tus of modern set theory to bear upon the definition lern of gathering, processing and utilizing informa· and analysis of systems information transfer and regulation (1 ,2,3). He provided an information-theo­ retical interpretation of the concepts of model and * The Goileeted Works of the Biological Computer modelling, and with Roger Conant proved the Laboratory, Kenneth L. Wilson (ed.), The lllinois Blue­ theorem that "every good regulator of a system print Co., 1976. must be a model of that system" (4,5). Ashby Cybernetics Forum 37 showed that the propositions of information theory completely closed systems (19) (see also L. Peterson were equivalent to proportians concerning certain (20 and 21)). functions of partitions of integers: i.e. if you can count, you can be a cyberneticist. As a result of this work in systems and informa­ Humberto R. Maturana tion theory, Ashby was able to contribute major papers in the areas of System Stability (6,7) and Humberto Maturana of the University of Chile and Many Dimensional Relations (8,9). The importance of BCL has written fundamental works on the implica­ Ashby's early work in cybernetics is widely recog­ tions of biology on cognition. Maturana, in Biology nized. The importance of these later works is only of Cognition (22) and Neurophysiology of Cognition now becoming weil known. (23), presents an epistemological theory of the Ob­ server as a living system and the living system as a closed network of interactions. This closed systems concept is in Opposition to current biological Gotthard GÜnther thought and makes possible a concise theory of Classical logic is based on a monothematic cognition and associated phenomena. Maturana ontology which specifies what can be studied by clarifies this concept in a book on the organization science. Objects and thus materiality can be known of living things (23,24). He shows that all the phe­ while subjectivity, being the immaterial aspects of a nomenology associated with living organisms arises system, must be objectified before it can be studied. from a closed circular organization. Maturana also Monothematic ontology must therefore stipulate the recognizes the sociological implications of these notion of the transeendental soul in a dichotomy theories (25). His work gives the biological basis for between thought (soul) and being (matter).ln light of a unified philosophy of cognition and living systems. Ashby's statement that Cybernetics is the study of the immaterial aspects of systems, classical logic presents a fundamental descriptive weakness for the Gordon Pask study of Cybernetics. Gotthard GÜnther proposes an interpretation of transclassical logic using a polythe­ Gordon Pask has combined the concepts of self­ matic ontology to give a structural basis for object referential systems and systems modeling to synthe­ qua object and subject qua subject as weil as object size new system formulations (26,27) and apply them qua subject (10,11,12,13,14). ln a polythematic in "teaching-learning machines". More recently, Pask ontology there are no attributes of the object with­ has developed a theory of conversation which can out the subject and no attributes of the subject be modeled and used in conversational teaching without the object. The object is discontextual with systems (28). The theory of conversation makes a regard to the subject and vice versa, where context­ distinction between "material individuals" and "psy­ ual refers to the non-reducibility of subject and chological individuals" in order to model the process object by an excluded third. A more than two-valued of topic-concept-memory formation in a conversation logic allows us in speaking about descriptions to between one or more subjects. The object language grasp the indefinite recursion of seit reflexivity. used to explain topics and concepts is distinguished from the meta-language used to discuss how the object language is being used. Conversation is treated as a self-organizing system with an arbitrary Lars Löfgren distinction between teacher and student. Pask has Lars LÖfgren approaches the problems associated made use of the Gunther-type logic system to model with a theory of description (15) and of explanation dialag with a true "dialogic". (16) by the axiomatic systems of automata theory. There is a similarity between the concepts of repro­ duction and explanation which implies a similarity between the less weil understood concepts of com­ Paul Weston plete self-reproduction and complete self-explanation Paul Weston has developed a new and powerful (17). LÖfgren shows these latter concepts to be data structuring concept called "Cylinders" (29). independent from ordinary logical-mathematical-bio­ This structuring method makes possible very fast logical reasoning, and in a special form, complete and efficient relational data bases necessary for self-reproduction is shown to be axiomatizable (18). dealing with the subtleties of language. Weston has lnvolved is the question, previously argued by also done fundamental work in the field of natural Wittgenstein, of whether or not there exists a func­ language computation which he and Von Foerster tion that belongs to its own domain. Complete self­ have aptly termed "Computing in the Semantic reproduction is primarily of interest in connection Domain" (30). Additionally, Paul Weston has written with formal theories of evolution. The importance of several papers on the philosophical and practical Löfgren's work also lies in the mathematical aspects of machines which can understand machinery necessary for modeling self-reflective and (31 ,32,33). 38 Work of Visiting Cyberneticians

First on the Iist of additional people who should be 9. Madden, R.F. & W.R. Ashby: "The ldentification mentioned as playing important parts at BCL is of Many-Dimensional Relations", lnt. J. Systems Herbert Brun. A professor of composition at the Sei., 3, (4) 343-356 (1972). School of Music at the University of lllinois, Herbert 10. Gunther, G.: "Cybernetic Ontology and Trans­ Brun was a constant source of new ideas and valu­ junctional Operations" in Self-Organizing Sys· able criticism. Through Professor Brun, BCL main­ tems, M.C. Yovits et al (eds.), Spartan Books; tained an important link to the creative arts. This Washington, D.C., 313-392 (1962). link gave BCL an interesting perspective on itself 11. Gunther, G.: "Time, Timeless Logic and Self­ and on science. Referential Systems" in lnterdisciplinary Per­ Stafford Beer, though never in residence at BCL, spectives of Time, Annals of the New York provided BCL with its link to the operations research Academy of Sciences, 138, (2) R. Fisher (ed.), side of cybernetics. His work was studied diligently New York Academy of Sciences; New York, 396· at BCL and his all too infrequent trips to BCL were 406 (1967). important events in its history. 12. Gunther, G. & H. Von Foerster: "The Logical Francisco Varela, coworker for many years with Structure of Evolution and Emanation" in lnter­ Humberto Maturana, added mathematical innovation disciplinary Perspectives of Time, Annals of the to some of the biological concepts evolved at BCL. New York Academy of Sciences, 138 (2), New His input into BCL in the latter years provided a York Academy of Sciences; New York, 874-891 needed stimulus for rethinking the work of Gunther (1967). and Maturana. 13. Gunther, G.: "Many-Valued Designations and a The students of Heinz Von Foerster and BCL are Hierarchy of First Order Ontologies" in Proc. of too numerous to mention here. Much of their work the 14th Internat'/ Congress of Philosophy, 111, is included in The Goileeted Works of the Biological L. Gabriel (ed.), Herder; Vienna, 37-44 (1969). Computer Laboratory. Others, who are not included 14. Gunther, G.: "Natural Numbers in Trans-Ciassic in that volume, may at times in the future express Systems", (Parto I & II), Journal of Cybernetics, their ties to BCL. lt is certain that they share with 1, (2) and 1, (3) 23-33, 50-62, (1971). this author an intense gratitude for the opportunity 15. Lofgren, L.: "Recognition of Order and Evolu­ of studying with Heinz Von Foerster and his col­ tionary System" in Computer and Information leagues at BCL. Seiences II, J. Tou (ed.), Academic Press; New York, 165-175 (1967). 16. Lofgren, L.: "An Axiomatic Explanation of Com· plete Self-Reproduction", Bull. Math. Biophys., 30, 415-425 (1968). REFERENCES 17. Lofgren, L.: "Self-Repair as a Computability 1. Ashby, W.R.: "Measuring the Interna! lnforma­ Concept", Proc. Symp. on Math. Theory of tional Exchange in a System", Cybernetica, 8, Automata, Polytechnic lnstit. of Brooklyn; New 5-22 (1965). York, 205-222 (1962). 2. Ashby, W.R.: "Some Consequences of Bremer­ 18. op. cit., "An Axiomatic Explanation of Complete mann's Limit for lnformation-Processing Sys­ Self-Reproduction". tems" in Cybernetic Problems in Bionics, H. 19. B.C.L. Staff: Accomplishment Summary 1966167 Oestreicher & D. Moore (eds.), Gordon & Breach of the Biological Computer Labaratory for the Science Publishers; New York, 69-76 (1968). Period 1 June 1966-31 April 1967, 126 pp.; 1967. 3. Ashby, W.R.: "Information Flows Within Co­ 20. Peterson, Larry J.: The Recursive Nature of Des· ordinated Systems", International Congress of criptions: A Fixed Point, Ph.D. Thesis, Depart· Cybernetics, J. Rose (ed.), London, 57-64 (1969). ment of Computer Science, University of llli· 4. Ashby, W.R.: "Requisite Variety and lts lmplica­ nois; Urbana, 106 pp. + 'Vitae (1974). tions for the Control of Camplex Systems," 21. Maturana, H.: Biology of Cognition, 95 pp.; Cybernetica, /, (2) 83-99 (1958). 1970. 5. Ashby, W.R. and R. Conant: "Every Good Regu­ 22. Maturana, H.: "Neurophysiology of Cognition" lator of a System Must Be a Model of that in Cognition: A Multiple View, P. Garvin (ed.), System", lnt. J. Systems Sei., 1, 89-97 (1970). Spartan Books; New York, 3-23 (1970). 6. Ashby, W.R., H. Von Foerster & C.C. Walker: 23. Varela, F.G., Maturana, H.R., and Uribe, R.: "lnstability of Pulse Activity in a Net with Autopoiesis: The Organization of Living Sys· Threshold", Nature, 196, 561-562 (1962). tems, its Characterization and a Model", Bio· 7. Gardner, M.R. & W.R. Ashby: "Connectance of systems, 5 (4), 187-196 (1974). Large Dynamic (Cybernetic) Systems: Critical 24. Maturana, H. and F. Varela: Autopoietic Sys· Values for Stability", Nature, 228, 784 (1970). tems: A Characterization of the Living Organiza· 8. Ashby, W.R. & H. Von Foerster: "Biological tion, BCL, University of lllinois, Urbana, BCL Computers" in Bioastronautics, K.E. Schaefer Report #9.4, 107 pp. (1975). (ed.), The Macmillan Co.; New York, 333-360 25. Maturana, H.: "Representation and Communica· (1964). tion Functions" in Encyclopedia Pleiade, J. Cybernetics Forum 39

Piaget (ed.) 1978. 30. Weston, P.E.: "To Uncover; To Deduce; To Con­ 26. Von Foerster, H. & G. Pask: "A Predictive clude", Computer Studies in the Humanities Model for Self-Organizing Systems", Cyberneti­ and Verbal Behavior, 3 (2) 77-89 (1970). ca, 3, 258-300 (1960) and 4, 20-55 (1961). 31. Von Foerster, H., A. Inselberg & P. Weston: 27. Pask, G.: "The Meani.ng of Cybernetics in the "Memory and lnductive lnference" in Bionies Behavioural Seiences (The Cybernetics of Be­ Symposium 1966: Cybernetic Problems in haviour and Cognition: Extending the Meaning Bionics, H. Oestreicher & D. Moore (eds.), of "Goal")" in Progress of Cybernetics, Vol. 1, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers; New J. Rose (ed.), Gordon and Breach; New York, York, 31-68 (1968). 15-44 (1969). 32. Weston, P.E. and S.M. Taylor: "Cylinders: A Re- 28. Pask, G.: Conversation, Cognition and Learning. lational Data Structure", ACM SIGPLAN Elsevier, 1975. Notices, 6, (2), 398-416 (1971 ). 29. Weston, P.E.: Gy/inders: A Relational Data 33. Weston, P.E. & H. Von Foerster: "Artificial ln­ Structure, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Elec­ telligence and Machines That Understand", An­ trical Engineering, University of lllinois; Urbana, nual Review of Physical Chemistry, Vol. 24, H. 77 pp. (1970). Eyring, C.J. Christensen & H.S. Johnston (eds.), Annual Reviews lnc.; Palo Alto, 353-378 (1973). About the Authors

STAFFORD BEER HUMBERTO R. MATURANA Stafford Beer is a part-time Dr. Maturana received his Professor of Cybernetics at Ph.D. IN Biology at Harvard Manchester University and University in 1959. He worked also works as a consultant as a research associate at in managerial cybernetics. MIT in the Department of He has worked for many Electrical Engineering from large organizations, twelve 1958 to 1960. From 1961 on governments, and interna­ he has been a research as­ tional organizations such as sociate at the Department of the UN, UNESCO, and Biology and Genetics at the OECD. He has also held full­ Medical School of the Uni­ time managerial posts in various senior roles. He is versity of Chile in Santiago. ln 1965 he was named a past president of the Oparational Research Society Professor of Biology on the Faculty of Seiences at (Great Britain) and of the Society for General Sys­ the University of Chile. He is currently teaching and tems Research (USA). He holds the Lanchester Prize doing research at that University. of the Operations Research Society of America and During the past 10 years Professor Maturana also was the first recipient of the McCulloch Memorial has been a Visiting Professor and Lecturer in both Award of the American Society for Cybernetics. He the United States and West Germany. has held many committee appointments, including ten years on the General Advisory Council of the BBC, and ~welve years on the United Kingdom Auto­ mation Council. Stafford Beer has published some two hundred GORDON PASK Dr. Pask is a co-founder and items, and has just completed his eighth book, The Director of Research at Sys­ Heart of Enterprise, published 1979, by John Wiley. tem Research Ltd. at Rich­ He lives very quietly in a remote cottage in the hills mond in Surrey, and is also of Wales. Professor of Cybernetics at Brunel University and at the .. Institute of Educational LARS LOFGREN Technology at the Open Uni­ Lars Lofgren was born in versity. He is President of Stockholm, Sweden, in 1925. the Cybernetic Society, Lon­ He received his master's de­ don and is past president gree in 1949, "licentiat" in (1974) of the Society for General Systems Research, 1954, and the degree of remaining on the panel of "Distinguished Advisors". Ph.D. in mathematics in 1962, He was also elected an honorary member of the all from Kungliga Tekniska Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies. Hogskolan in Stockholm. Dr. Pask is on the Editorial Boards of "lnstruc· ln 1959-61 he worked with tional Science", "Policy Analysis and System Sei· the Biological Computer ence", "Behavioural Science", and "International Group at the University of Journal of Man Machine Studies". He has served as lllinois, Urbana. Since 1963 he has been Professor at visiting professor at the Universities of Mexico, the Department of Automata and General Systems lllinois, Oregon, and at the Georgia Institute of Tech­ Seiences at the University of Lund, Sweden. ln 1966- nology, and occasionally serves as consultant to or 68 he revisited the Biological Computer Group at committee member of various international organiza· the University of lllinois as a Visiting Associate tions. He lives in Richmond, Surrey, with his wife Professor. and two daughters. Cybernetics Forum 41

EDWIN SCHLOSSBERG KENNETH L WILSON Edwin Schlossberg was edu­ Kenneth L. Wilson studied cated at Cornell University, with Professor Von Foerster Columbia College, and Co­ from 1972 to 1977. During lumbia University where, in this period he received a 1971, he received his doctor­ master's degree in electrical ate in Science and Literature. engineering from the Univer­ Dr. Schlossberg designed the sity of lllinois with Von Environmental Design Pro­ Foerster. Mr. Wilson has gram at the Willard School also studied with Professor in Berkeley, California, the Humberto Maturana of the Environmental Room for the University of Chile and with Children's Art Garnival in New York City, and was Professor Herbert Brun of the University of lllinois. the editor of the Journal of Environmental Design. He was responsible for the production and editing of With R. Buckminster Fuller he directed, in 1969, the The Gofleeted Works of the Biological Computer World Game. From 1971-74 he was the administrator Labaratory published by the lllinois Blueprint Cer­ of exhibit design at the Brooklyn Children's Museum poration (1976). Mr. Wilson is currently Process Engi­ for which he created the design of the entire Learn­ neering Manager for Precision Circuits lncorporated. ing Environment. He is also the designer of the Animated Toy Exhibit for the Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design. Dr. Schlossberg has been a con­ sultant for the White House Conference on Children and Youth and the Smithsonian Institution Division of Performing Arts. He is the author of The Learning Environment for the Brooklyn Children's Museum, Einstein and Beckett, and WORDSWORDSWORDS which has been exhibited in many major museums. He is also the co-author of The Pocket Calculator Game Book, Volumes 1 and 2, The Kid's Pocket Calculator Game Book, The Philosopher's Game, The Horne Computer Handbook, and other works.

STUART A. UMPLEBY Stuart A. Umpleby is an as­ sociate professor of Manage­ ment Science at George Washington University. He teaches in the program on General Management Sys­ tems and Organizational Cy­ bernetics (GEMSOC). He re­ ceived degrees in mechani­ cal engineering, political sci­ ence, and communications from the University of lllinois in Urbana-Champaign. while at the University of lllinois he was connected with the Biological Computer Laboratory and the Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (the PLATO system). For two years he has been the mod­ erater of a computer conference among about fifty cyberneticians and systems theorists in the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has recently com­ pleted a system dynamics model of national develop­ ment for the Agency for International Development. Statement of Editorial Policy

The ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM is an internationally distributed quarterly publication of the American Society of Cybernetics. lt is published to promote the understanding and advancement of cybernetics. lt is recognized that cybernetics covers a very broad spectrum, ranging from formalized theory through experimental and technological development to practical applications. Thus the boundaries of acceptable subject matter are intentionally not sharply delineated. Rather it is hoped that the flexible publication policy of the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM will foster and promote, the continuing evolution of cybernetic thought. The ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM is designed to provide not only cyberneticists, but also intelligent laymen, with an insight into cybernetics and its applicability to a wide variety of scientific, social and economic problems. Gontributions should be lively, graphic and to the point. Tedious listings of tabular material should be avoided. The Editors reserve the right to make stylistic modifications consistent with the requirements of the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM. No substantive changes will be made without consultation with authors. They further reserve the right to reject manuscripts they deem unsuitable in nature, style or content. Opinions expressed in articles in the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM or its editors, or the American Society for Cybernetics or its directors and officers. All material published in the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM is Copyright by the American Society for Cybernetics who reserve a/1 rights.

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No. of Copies Proceedings Total Cost __ 1967: 1st Annual Symposium, "Purposive Systems" @$12.50 = $ ______1968: 2nd Annual Symposium, "Cybernetics and the Management of Large Systems" @$12.50 = S---- __ 1969: 3rd Annual Symposium, "Cybernetics, Simulation, and Conflict Resolution" @$12.50 = S---- ___ 1970: 4th Annual Symposium, "Cybernetics, Artificial lntelligence, and Ecology" @$12.50 = S---- ___ 1971: Fall Confcrence, "Cybcrnctics Techniquc in Brain Research and the Educational Process" @$ 7.50 = S---- Journal of Cybernctics ___ 1971: Vol. 1, 1·4 @$20.00 = $ ---­ ___ 1972: Vol. 2, 1·" @$20.00 = $ ---­ ___ 1973: Vol. 3, 1·4 @$20.00 = $---- Journal of Cybernetics and Information Science _ _:1976: Vol. 1, 1-4 $55.00 = $__

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BIOLOGICAL COMPUTER LABORATORY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA, ILLINOIS

The collection contains the complete publications of the Biological Computer Labaratory from 1957 to 1976 with over 300 papers and articles. This 14,000 page collection is presented on 148 microfiche (Standard 24X) with complete indexing and introduction in an attractive binder.

The collection contains works by:

W. R. Ashby; 55 papers on Information Theory, Self-Organizing Systems, Regulation and Control, System Stability, Many Dimensional Relations in Large Systems

Gotthard Gunther; 34 papers on Multivalued Logic, Non-Ciassical Logical Structures, Philosophical Foundations of Cybernetics

Lars Lofgren; 12 papers on Systems Theory, Self Reproducing Systems, Automata Theory, The Theory of Descriptions

Humberto Maturana; 2 books and 5 papers on The Biology of Cognition, The Organization of Living Systems, Epistemology, Language, Memory, Conscious­ ness, and other aspects of Cognition.

Gordon Pask; 6 papers on System Modeling, Goal Oriented Systems, Computer Aided lnstruction

Heinz Von Foerster; 91 papers on Self Organizing Systems, Information Theory, Biological Computers, Memory, Perception and Cognition, and the Philosophy of Cybernetics

Topical Areas lnclude: Cybernetics, Cognition, Perception, Memory, Learning, Systems Theory (General, Control, Biological and Social), Multi Valued Logic, Computer Science (Semantic Computation, Relational Data Structures, Information Processing), Automata Theory, Philosophy, Linguistics, Movement Notation, and the Cybernetics of Cybernetics.

Price: $59.00 Send To: lllinois Blueprint Corp. Micrographics Dept. Check, Money Order, or Purehase Order 821 Bond (Piease add $5.00 for overseas Airmail) Peoria, lllinois 61603