Kybernetes: Volume 34 Issue 1/2

Act always so as to increase the number of scientific perspectives: Introduction to the Heinz von Foerster volume

The paper serves as an introduction to the special issue on Heinz von Foerster. Major episodes of his life are sketched and related to his scientific convictions regarding…

From Vienna to California: a journey across disciplines: An interview with Heinz von Foerster

Seeks to promote an understanding of a multidisciplinary approach to artificial intelligence and the humanities.

Artificial neural nets and BCL

Attention is drawn to a principle of “significance feedback” in neural nets that was devised in the encouraging ambience of the Biological Computer Laboratory and is arguably…

Von Foerster meets Kohonen: Approaches to artificial intelligence, cognitive science and information systems development

Studies aspects of Heinz von Foerster's work that are of particular importance for cognitive science and artificial intelligence.

The origin and conservation of self‐consciousness: Reflections on four questions by Heinz von Foerster

To reflect on the matter of self‐consciousness.

Constructive memory

From the radical constructivist point of view the mainstream conception of memory as an encoding‐storage‐retrieval device is considered questionable. The paper aims at an…

Inside embodiment – what means embodiment to radical constructivists?

This work explores the consequences of Heinz von Foerster's claim in the context of linear signal theory, embodiment and the creation of artifacts that the nervous system is…

Cybernetics and embodied cognition: on the construction of realities in organisms and robots

To point out the relevance of Heinz von Foerster's work to modern embodied cognitive science and artifical intelligence research.

EigenForm

Discusses the notion of eigenform as explicated by Heinz von Foerster wherein an object is seen to be a token for those behaviors that lend the object its apparent stability in a…

Visualization of concept formation and learning

To discuss some of the work of Heinz von Foerster with regard to multidimensional visualization.

A theory of concepts and their combinations I: The structure of the sets of contexts and properties

To elaborate a theory for modeling concepts that incorporates how a context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept…

A theory of concepts and their combinations II: A Hilbert space representation

To develop a theory of concepts that solves the combination problem, i.e. to deliver a description of the combination of concepts. We also investigate the so‐called “pet fish…

Observing quantum systems

As any attempts at explaining quantum theory in terms of simple, local “cause‐and‐effect” models have remained unsatisfactory, approaches from the perspectives of systems theory…

Self‐organization, knowledge and responsibility

The main purpose of this paper is to consider knowledge production as a social self‐organization process, to clarify ethical implications of such an approach, and to relate it to…

Autonomy: starting point and goal of personal and social change: A constructivist perspective on knowledge management in empowerment processes

Empowerment describes the processes of how to gain and increase autonomy and self‐determination in one's own environment. Typical examples for empowerment processes can be found…

What I learned from Heinz von Foerster about the construction of science

To report on an empirical study in psycholinguistics that revealed a difference between European and American patterns of thinking and to provide a brief history of a 30‐year…

A peaceful coexistence of epistemologies – philosophy from the constructivist's point of view

To explore possible innovations that constructivism and its epistemological participatory position offer to philosophy, in particular to the age‐old problem of grounding…

Emerald Structured Abstracts have arrived!

Special issues dedicated to the life and work of Heinz von Foerster