The beginning of heaven and Earth has no name [electronic resource] : seven days with second-order cybernetics / Heinz von Foerster ; edited by Albert Müller and Karl H. Müller ; translated by Elinor Rooks and Michael Kasenbacher.

By:

Von Foerster, Heinz, 1911-2002 [author.]

Contributor(s):

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Original language: German Series: Meaning systemsPublication details: New York : Fordham University Press, [2014] 2015)Edition: First editionDescription: 1 online resource (pages cm.)ISBN:

9780823255641

Uniform titles:

Anfang von Himmel und Erde hat keinen Namen. English

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Electronic books.

DDC classification:

003/.5 23

LOC classification:

Q310 .V6613 2014

Online resources:

Full text available:

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: -- A Fore-word by the Series Editor -- An Author's Fore-words -- Fore-wards with Two Editors -- Fore-taste of an Author with Two Editors -- 1. First Day: Building Blocks, Observers, Emergence, Trivial Machines -- 2. Second Day: Innovation, Life, Order, Thermodynamics -- 3. Third Day: Movement, Species, Recursion, Selectivity -- 4. Fourth Day: Cognition, Perception, Memory, Symbols -- 5. Fifth Day: Communicating, Talking, Thinking, Falling -- 6. Sixth Day: Experiences, Heuristics, Plans, Futures -- 7. Seventh Day: Rest, Rest, Rest, Rest -- Epilogue in Heaven. -- Translators' Notes -- Notes.

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 elan 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.

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Includes bibliographical references and index.

"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 elan 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.

Description based on print version record.

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