Heinz von Foerster (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
spelling: Heinz von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an
Austrian American
Austrian Americans (, ) are Americans of Austrian descent, chiefly German-speaking Catholics and Jews. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there were 735,128 Americans of full or partial Austrian descent, accounting for 0.3% of the population. The ...
scientist combining
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
, and widely attributed as the originator of
Second-order cybernetics
Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, is the recursive application of cybernetics to itself and the reflexive practice of cybernetics according to such a critique. It is cybernetics where "the role of the observer ...
. He was twice a
Guggenheim fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(1956–57 and 1963–64) and also was a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
, 1980. He is well known for his 1960
Doomsday equation
Heinz von Foerster (German spelling: Heinz von Förster; November 13, 1911 – October 2, 2002) was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy, and widely attributed as the originator of Second-order cybernetics. He was twice ...
formula published in ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' predicting future population growth.
As a
polymath
A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
, he wrote nearly two hundred professional papers, gaining renown in fields from
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
and
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
to
epistemology
Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics.
Episte ...
, and researched high-speed
electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
and
electro-optics
Electro–optics is a branch of electrical engineering, electronic engineering, materials science, and material physics involving components, electronic devices such as lasers, laser diodes, LEDs, waveguides, etc. which operate by the propaga ...
switching devices as a physicist, and in
biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
, the study of
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...
and knowledge. He worked on
cognition
Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
based on
neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a branch of physiology and neuroscience that studies nervous system function rather than nervous system architecture. This area aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases. Historically, it has been dominated b ...
,
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and was called "one of the most consequential thinkers in the history of
cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
".
He came to the United States, and stayed after meeting with
Warren Sturgis McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ( ...
, where he received funding from
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
to establish the
Biological Computer Laboratory The Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) was a research institute of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was founded on 1 January 1958, by then Professor of Electrical Engineering Heinz von Foe ...
, which built the first
parallel computer
Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different for ...
, the ''Numa-Rete''. Working with
William Ross Ashby
W. Ross Ashby (6 September 1903 – 15 November 1972) was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not ...
, one of the original
Ratio Club The Ratio Club was a small British informal dining club from 1949 to 1958 of young psychiatrists, psychologists, physiologists, mathematicians and engineers who met to discuss issues in cybernetics., p. 95.
History
The idea of the club arose f ...
members, and together with
Warren McCulloch
Warren Sturgis McCulloch (November 16, 1898 – September 24, 1969) was an American neurophysiologist and cybernetician, known for his work on the foundation for certain brain theories and his contribution to the cybernetics movement.Ken Aizawa ( ...
,
Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
,
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
and
Lawrence J. Fogel
Dr. Lawrence Jerome Fogel (March 2, 1928 – February 18, 2007) was a pioneer in evolutionary computation and human factors analysis. He is known as the inventor of active noise cancellation and the father of evolutionary programming. His scient ...
, Heinz von Foerster was an architect of
cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
and one of the members of the
Macy conferences,
eventually becoming editor of its early
proceedings
In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confere ...
alongside
Hans-Lukas Teuber
Hans-Lukas Teuber (August 7, 1916 – January 4, 1977) was a professor of psychology and head of the psychology department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was one of the founders of neuropsychology and studied perception. He coine ...
and
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
.
Biography
Von Foerster was born in 1911 in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
,
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, as Heinz von Förster. His paternal grandfather was Austrian architect
Emil Ritter von Foerster. His maternal grandmother was
Marie Lang, an Austrian feminist,
theosophist
Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...
and publisher. He studied physics at the
Technical University of Vienna
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
and at the
University of Breslau
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, where in 1944 he received a
PhD in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
. His relatives included
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
,
Erwin Lang and
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.
Early life
Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-class ...
.
Ludwig Förster
Ludwig Christian Friedrich (von) Förster (8 October 1797 in Ansbach – 16 June 1863 in Bad Gleichenberg, Styria) was a German-born Austrian architect. While he was not Jewish, he is known for building Jewish synagogues and churches.
Ludwig F ...
was his great-grandfather.
His
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
roots didn't cause him much troubles while he worked in radar laboratories during the
Nazi era
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, as "he hid his ancestry with the help of an employer who chose not to press him for documents on his family."
He moved to the US in 1949, and worked at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
, where he was a professor of electrical engineering from 1951 to 1975. He also was professor of
biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...
(1962–1975) and Director of the
Biological Computer Laboratory The Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) was a research institute of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was founded on 1 January 1958, by then Professor of Electrical Engineering Heinz von Foe ...
(1958–1975). Additionally, in 1956–57 and 1963–64 he was a
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
and also President of th
Wenner-Gren-Foundationfor anthropological research from 1963 to 1965.
He knew well and was in conversation with
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
,
Norbert Wiener
Norbert Wiener (November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964) was an American mathematician and philosopher. He was a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher i ...
,
Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Brün ...
,
Francisco Varela
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesi ...
,
Gordon Pask
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (28 June 1928 – 29 March 1996) was an English author, inventor, educational theorist, cybernetician and psychologist who made contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and ed ...
,
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. His writings include '' Steps to an ...
,
Lawrence J. Fogel
Dr. Lawrence Jerome Fogel (March 2, 1928 – February 18, 2007) was a pioneer in evolutionary computation and human factors analysis. He is known as the inventor of active noise cancellation and the father of evolutionary programming. His scient ...
and
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and the 1970s.
She earned her bachelor's degree at Barnard Co ...
, among many others. He influenced generations of students as a teacher and inclusive, enthusiastic collaborator.
He died on October 2, 2002 in
Pescadero, California
Pescadero (Spanish for "Fishmonger") is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in San Mateo County, California, two miles (3 km) east of State Route 1 and Pescadero State Beach. The town is south of Half Moon Bay. The ZIP ...
.
Work
Von Foerster was influenced by the
Vienna Circle
The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, cha ...
and
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
. He worked in the field of
cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
and is known as the inventor of
second-order cybernetics
Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, is the recursive application of cybernetics to itself and the reflexive practice of cybernetics according to such a critique. It is cybernetics where "the role of the observer ...
.
[ He made important contributions to ]constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...
. He is also known for his interest in computer music and magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
.
The electron tube laboratory
In 1949, von Foerster started work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
at the electron tube laboratory of the Electrical Engineering Department, where he succeeded Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner
Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner (also known as Joseph T. Tykociner; 5 October 1877, in Włocławek, Congress Poland – 11 June 1969, in Urbana, Illinois, United States) was a Polish engineer and a pioneer of sound-on-film technology.
In 1921 he bec ...
. With his students he developed many innovative devices, including ultra-high-frequency electronics
He also worked on mathematical models of population dynamics and in 1959 published a model now called the "von Foerster equation The McKendrick–von Foerster equation is a linear first-order partial differential equation encountered in several areas of mathematical biology – for example, demography and cell proliferation modeling; it is applied when age structure is an imp ...
", which is derivable from the principles of constant aging and conservation of mass.
:
where: ''n'' = ''n''(''t'',''a''), ''t'' stands for time and ''a'' for age. ''m''(''a'') is the death in function of the population age; ''n''(''t'',''a'') is the population density in function of age.
When ''m''(''a'') = 0, we have:[Murray, J.D. ''Mathematical Biology: An Introduction''. Third edition. Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics. Mathematical Biology. Spring: 2002.]
:
It relates that a population ages, and that fact is the only one that influences change in population density.
It is therefore a continuity equation
A continuity equation or transport equation is an equation that describes the transport of some quantity. It is particularly simple and powerful when applied to a conserved quantity, but it can be generalized to apply to any extensive quantity. S ...
; it can be solved using the method of characteristics
In mathematics, the method of characteristics is a technique for solving partial differential equations. Typically, it applies to first-order equations, although more generally the method of characteristics is valid for any hyperbolic partial ...
. Another way is by similarity solution
In the study of partial differential equations, particularly in fluid dynamics, a self-similar solution is a form of solution which is similar to itself if the independent and dependent variables are appropriately scaled. Self-similar solutions ap ...
; and a third is a numerical approach such as finite differences
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . If a finite difference is divided by , one gets a difference quotient. The approximation of derivatives by finite differences plays a central role in finite difference methods for the ...
.
The gross birth rate is given by the following boundary condition:
:
The solution is only unique given the initial conditions
:
which states that the initial population distribution must be given; then it will evolve according to the partial differential equation.
Biological Computer Laboratory
In 1958, he formed the '' Biological Computer Lab'', studying similarities in cybernetic systems in biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
and electronics
The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...
.
Macy conferences
He was the youngest member of the core group of the Macy conferences on Cybernetics and editor of the five volumes of ''Cybernetics'' (1949–1953), a series of conference transcripts that represent important foundational conversations in the field. It was von Foerster who suggested that Wiener's coinage "Cybernetics
Cybernetics is a wide-ranging field concerned with circular causality, such as feedback, in regulatory and purposive systems. Cybernetics is named after an example of circular causal feedback, that of steering a ship, where the helmsperson m ...
" be applied to this conference series, which had previously been called "Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems".
Doomsday equation
A 1960 issue of ''Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
'' magazine included an article by von Foerster and his colleagues P. M. Mora and L. W. Amiot proposing a formula representing a best fit to available historical data on world population; the authors then predicted future population growth on the basis of this formula.
The formula gave 2.7 billion as the 1960 world population and predicted that population growth would become infinite by Friday, November 13, 2026 – von Foerster's 115th birthday anniversary – a prediction that earned it the name "the Doomsday Equation."
Based on population data obtained from various sources, von Foerster and his students concluded that world population growth over the centuries was faster than an exponential. In such a situation, doubling-time decreases over time. Von Foerster's tongue-in-cheek prediction of Doomsday on November 13, 2026, was based on an extrapolation into the future of doubling-time, with the finding that doubling-time would decrease to zero on that date.
Responders to his Doomsday prediction objected on the grounds of the finite human gestation time of 9 months, and the transparent fact that biological systems rarely persist in exponential growth for any substantial length of time. Those who knew von Foerster could see in his rejoinders an evident sense of humor.
See also
* Logarithmic timeline
A logarithmic timeline is a timeline laid out according to a logarithmic scale. This necessarily implies a zero point and an infinity point, neither of which can be displayed. The most natural zero point is the Big Bang, looking forward, but ...
* Macy conferences
* Power law
In statistics, a power law is a Function (mathematics), functional relationship between two quantities, where a Relative change and difference, relative change in one quantity results in a proportional relative change in the other quantity, inde ...
: The equation that he derived for the date calculated is one that nowadays is called a power law.
* List of dates predicted for apocalyptic events
Predictions of apocalyptic events that would result in the extinction of humanity, a collapse of civilization, or the destruction of the planet have been made since at least the beginning of the Common Era. Most predictions are related to Ab ...
* ''The Dream of Reality
''The Dream of Reality: Heinz von Foerster's Constructivism'' is a book by Lynn Segal first published in 1986. Segal, a licensed clinical social worker, examines the constructivist epistemology of physicist and philosopher Heinz von Foerster. Or ...
'' by Lynn Segal, 1986. A book summarizing von Foerster's constructivist epistemology.
Publications
Von Foerster authored more than 100 publications.[Th]
Bibliography of Heinz von Foerster 1943–2003
from Alexander Riegler, dec 2003 gives an overview of all his publications. Books, a selection:
* 1949, ''Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference'', (editor), Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation: New York, 220 pp.
* 2002, ''Understanding understanding'', a volume of von Foerster's papers, published by Springer-Verlag, 2002.
* 2010, with Monika Broecker: Part of the World. Fractals of Ethics – A Drama in Three Acts. Heinz von Foerster's most extensive biography. First published in German in 2002: with Monika Broecker. Teil der Welt. Fraktale einer Ethik – ein Drama in drei Akten.
Articles, a selection:
* 1958, "Basic Concepts of Homeostasis." ''In: Homeostatic Mechanisms'', Upton, New York, pp. 216–242, 1958.
* 1960, "Doomsday: Friday, November 13, AD 2026," with P. M. Mora und L. W. Amiot, ''Science'' 132, pp. 1291–1295, 1960.
* 1961, "A Predictive Model for Self-Organizing Systems," Part I: ''Cybernetica'' 3, pp. 258–300; Part II: Cybernetica 4, pp. 20–55, with Gordon Pask
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (28 June 1928 – 29 March 1996) was an English author, inventor, educational theorist, cybernetician and psychologist who made contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and ed ...
, 1961.
* 1964, "Biological Computers," with W. Ross Ashby, In: ''Bioastronautics'', K. E. Schaefer, Macmillan Co., New York, pp. 333– 360, 1964.
* 1969, "What is Memory that it may have Hindsight and Foresight"
* 1971, "Computing in the Semantic Domain"
* 1971, "Technology. What Will It Mean to Librarians?"
References
Further reading
* Asaro, Peter M. (2007)
"Heinz von Foerster and the Bio-Computing Movements of the 1960s,"
in Albert Müller and Karl H. Müller
Karl H. Müller (born 1953) is an Austrian social scientist, and director of the Steinbeis Transfer Center New Cybernetics in Vienna. He is particularly known for his 2005 work with J. Rogers Hollingsworth on "Advancing Socio-Economics: An Institu ...
(eds.
An Unfinished Revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory , BCL 1958–1976.
Vienna, Austria: Edition Echoraum.
External links
at Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
The Heinz von Foerster Page
Biological Computer Laboratory web site, University of Illinois
from the Heinz von Foerster entry a
The Cybernetics Society
* Gooch, Sherwin, & Nordin, Hud,
*
"Heinz Von Foerster Papers at the University of Illinois Archives"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foerster, Heinz Von
1911 births
2002 deaths
Austrian scientists
Cyberneticists
Systems scientists
Epistemologists
Complex systems scientists
Singularitarians
Scientists from Vienna
TU Wien alumni
University of Breslau alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
People from Pescadero, California
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences