Heinz von Foerster famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Objectivity is a subject's delusion that observing can be done without him
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Objectivity #Done #Delusion
Hard sciences are successful because they deal with the soft problems; soft sciences are struggling because they deal with the hard problems.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Struggle #Successful #Problem
Should one name one central concept, a first principle, of cybernetics, it would be circularity.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Names #Principles #Circularity
Cybernetics is NOT the banana.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Cybernetics #Bananas
What we need now is the description of the "describer" or, in other words, we need a theory of the observer.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Needs #Description #Theory
Either Stone Age man was a technological wizard, who carefully removed his technological achievements so as not to upset his inferior progeny, or our population dwindled from a once astronomical size to the mere three billions of today.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Men #Upset #Age
Act always so as to increase the number of choices
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Numbers #Choices #Increase
Something that cannot be explained cannot be seen.
-- Heinz von Foerster
The environment as we perceive it is our invention,
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Environment #Invention #Perceive
First-order cybernetics is the science of observed systems; Second-order cybernetics is the science of observing systems.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Order #Cybernetics #Firsts
If you desire to see, learn how to act.
-- Heinz von Foerster

#Vision #Desire

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