Søren Brier
This issue brings articles which analyze and discuss the epistemological and ontological assumptions of the recent developments in systems science and cybernetics making the shift to second order thinking. What are the consequences of the accepting the self-organization and reflectivity of knowing and knowledge for our understanding of reality and the concept of truth?
Will McWhiney - inspired by his talk at the Einstein Meets Magritte conference in Brussels - discusses how we create realities by the making of boundaries and further how this process creates those realities that are the subject for discourses of power, values and social change.
Asghar Minai analyses the roots of emergence. He coins the concept of ‘autopoietic communication’ to create a global model encompassing information and communication theory, semiotics and autopoiesis. He uses the model to describe emergence and to bridge the gap between the worlds of science and art in a spiritual ontology.
Celebrating Heinz von Foerster’s 85th years birthday we bring a paper by Carlos Sluzki originally presented at the ASC-conference: "Cybernetics and Circularity: A conference on the Seeds of Cybernetics in the Work of Heinz von Foerster". Sluzki analyzes the "The Eigen-values of Stories" in the process of transforming narratives about relationships from a family therapist point of view.
Ranulph Glanville continues his ‘Cybernetic Musing’ over basic concepts in second order cybernetics. This time he discusses the concept of communication, confronting the differences between coding and conversation.
Finally Peter Bøgh Andersen reviews John Mingers important book: "Self-producing Systems: Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis" and discusses the concept of truth in self-referential theories and asks: Can the truth of a theory be periodic or governed by chaotic attractors?
We welcome Roland Posner, Kjell Samuelson and John Mingers as new members of the editorial board, and Pere Juliá and Elisabeth Davenport as new consultant editors.
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