Heinz von Foerster is dead
Heinz von Foerster was a
physicist, inventor, philosopher and one of the most important pioneers of
cybernetics. Above all, he was one of the few people able to express the
consequences and practical significance of cybernetics for society in clear
and simple words. He demonstrated to a broad and enthusiastic audience the
application and benefits of cybernetics in a wide variety of fields from
technology to art, from medicine to education, from mathematics to philosophy
and from sociology to psychiatry.
There will be many obituaries of him that describe him as a genius in many fields. It's true that he had extremely wide-ranging abilities. Many people will say what a wonderful man he was. He made it easy for everyone to have a good relationship with him. Many obituaries will describe his outstanding scientific work. But no one will be able to speak more clearly about him than he did himself.
With the concepts of first-order and second-order cybernetics, and with his trivial and non-trivial machines, he has demonstrated how essential it is today and will be in the future to build sturdy bridges, made of properly thought-out knowledge about action, between educational knowledge, rules, laws and current situations. As a result of his unerring logic and clarity, together with his constructive and responsible view of life and the world, which was based on the principle of increasing the number of choices, he will go down in history as one of the greatest philosophers of our time.
In the case of a philosopher like Heinz von Foerster it is better either to say a great deal, or out of the greatest respect, only a little. A word has been created to describe him and his philosophy that is possibly also the best illustration of him and his life: CybernEthics.
The last occasion on which we saw him, when we had a small and cordial celebration with him, before his large celebration, was on his 90th birthday in Vienna in October 2001. His native city meant a lot to him.
Dear Heinz, many, many thanks for all the celebrations that we have been privileged to share with you.
|
Prof. Dr. Fredmund Malik |
Maria Pruckner |