The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name: Seven Days with Second-Order Cybernetics

Forewords with Two Editors

Forewords with Two Editors If we don’t act ourselves, we shall be acted upon. —Heinz von Foerster, Understanding Understanding When the answer cannot be put into words, neither can the question be put into words. . . . If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it. —Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus These are the generations of the heauens, & of the earth, when they were created; in the day that the Lord God made the earth, and the heauens, And euery plant of the field, before it was in the earth, and euery herbe of the field, before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to raine vpon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. —Genesis 2:4–6 Finding suitable introductions proves to be quite difficult, if only because incomparably more first sentences present themselves than can possibly be set down. As a rule, books only have the option of one first sentence, one single first paragraph. Composing this introduction proved especially time-consuming because many equally attractive variations were conceivable. The most immediate and direct form of introduction would refer to the book’s intent, aims and contents. This seemed xiv Forewords with Two Editors imperative in our case because there needs to be a careful explanation of what plan, if any, guides this book. The basic idea for the book can be plainly and simply stated: The life’s work of Heinz von Foerster, a biocybernetician from the former “greater Austria,” should be discussed, along with his specific historical and scientific-historical contexts. The potpourri of Foersterian themes should be arranged and composed, however , in the context of a fundamental problem of biocybernetics—the construction of a “thought machine.” In other words, we wanted to apply our “trialogs” with Heinz von Foerster to the question of what steps, devices , heuristics, programs, and hardware would be necessary to construct a “thought machine” that—and here we get onto a strong self-referential loop—would think and function like Heinz von Foerster himself. In this spirit we designed the conversations according to the following schedule: Monday: Matter Tuesday: Life Wednesday: Sense and movement Thursday: Cognition Friday: Language Saturday: Foersterian heuristics Sunday: Rest At the happy ending of these six conversations—the lucky number seven has long been associated with rest and contemplation—we should have an overview of the Foersterian perspective on biocybernetics, as well as an insight into the working method and operations of the Foersterian “thought style.” Such an introduction, if carried out in greater detail, would afford insights into the book’s design. But because this introduction would force us to disregard so many interesting points, we looked for an alternative framework that would allow us a greater variety and diversity of themes. And almost effortlessly, an introduction with a stronger orientation toward the social sciences emerged, based on the idea of the pundit. Interviews with pundits do not, as a rule, last six long days but make do with a shorter space of time. But pundits have their talking points and programs, which we had also—in repeated consultation with Heinz von Foerster—drafted and coordinated. The emphasis on these talking points will be briefly laid out here and reproduced elsewhere. Throughout the Forewords with Two Editors xv days, each of these six conversations should, like trivial machines, progress through the following internal stages or key passages: 1. Foerster quotation to start the day 2. Key concept of the day 3. Key theorem of the day 4. “Second-order considerations” 5. Key heuristics concerning the field of conversation 6. “Implicit knowledge” of the particular field 7. Foerster quotation to end the day There should be no pretence that agreement on this program on this conversational program was a foregone conclusion. Indeed, in the interview, Heinz himself accepted the possibility of a distinction between “science” and “life”: There are two main areas that develop within every person who works in science: namely, his personal life, his personal stories, how he came upon his themes, how he decided upon his special subjects, how he met his beautiful wife, when his children were born, and why he had that fierce argument with the great philosopher X, Y, or Z. That’s the first aspect, a focus within his personality. The second main area is what he was arguing about with the great philosopher. What concepts...