The beginning of heaven and Earth has no name : seven days with second-order cybernetics / Heinz von Foerster ; edited by Albert Müller and Karl H. Müller ; translated by Elinor Rooks and Michael Kasenbacher.
Anfang von Himmel und Erde hat keinen Namen. English
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
A Foreword by the Series Editor -- An Author's Forewords -- Forewords with Two Editors -- Fore-]taste of an Author with Two Editors -- Notes on the Translation -- Preface to the American Edition -- First Day: Building Blocks, Observers, Emergence, Trivial Machines -- Second Day: Innovation, Life, Order, Thermodynamics -- Third Day: Movement, Species, Recursion, Selectivity -- Fourth Day: Cognition, Perception, Memory, Symbols -- Fifth Day: Communicating, Talking, Thinking, Falling -- Sixth Day: Experiences, Heuristics, Plans, Futures -- Seventh Day: Rest, Rest, Rest, Rest -- Epilogue in Heaven.
Summary:
"Heinz von Foerster was the inventor of second-order cybernetics, which recognizes the investigator as part of the system he is investigating. The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name provides an accessible, nonmathematical, and comprehensive overview of von Foerster's cybernetic ideas and of the philosophy latent within them. It distills concepts scattered across the lifework of this scientific polymath and influential interdisciplinarian. At the same time, as a book-length interview, it does justice to von Foerster's élan as a speaker and improviser, his skill as a raconteur. Developed from a week-long conversation between the editors and von Foerster near the end of his life, this work playfully engages von Foerster in developing the difference his notion of second-order cybernetics makes for topics ranging from emergence, life, order, and thermodynamics to observation, recursion, cognition, perception, memory, and communication. The book gives an English-speaking audience a new ease of access to the rich thought and generous spirit of this remarkable and protean thinker"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.