Søren Brier
13. November 1996 Heinz von Foerster - the father of second-order cybernetics - turned 85 years of age, and was celebrated at the University of Vienna with lectures, seminars and social events. Earlier, the journal Systems Research (Wiley, Volume 13, Number 3) published as a special issue a festschrift for von Foerster. Edited by Ranulph Glanville, it contains over two hundred pages with papers on von Foerster's many contributions to the foundation and development of second order cybernetics.
As a journal of second order cybernetics developing the thoughts of, among others, von Foerster, Maturana, Varela, Spencer-Brown, Pask, Luhmann, etc., we are in many senses, one continuing festschrift. Nevertheless, we have on this occasion found it fitting to present an interview with Heinz von Foerster about the origins and perspectives of his second order ideas.
The major content of this issue is devoted to a paper by Eric Schwarz spelling out his "Neuchatel model" of autopoietic and chaotic change. This general evolutionary model attempts to combine many concepts from system science, second order cybernetics, thermodynamics and chaos theory in a constructive transdisciplinary way.
In the Praxis section, Fred Steier and Eric Eisenberg share their experiences of introducing second order cybernetic principles in the design and organization of an "information" system and its social setting at NASA. After the Challenger accident, NASA officials sought to develop a "Lessons Learned Information System" to facilitate sharing knowledge of best practices and mishaps. Reflections on this invite lessons about information, knowledge, social learning, context and communication for all document mediating systems to be learned.
Ranulph Glanville continues his column on cybernetic concepts. This time it is Pask’s idea about communication and conversation which is spelled out in a short and provocative essay.
Louis H. Kauffman is welcomed as a new column writer. His topic is virtual logic!
Axel Randrup reviews the new journal "Cognition and Evolution" which from its focus on evolutionary epistemology also takes issue with constructivism and second order cybernetics.
Welcomed as new consultant editors are Gertrudis Van de Vijver and Daniel M. Dubois.
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