Heinz Von Foerster Quotes & Sayings

Everything that is said is said by an observer. — Heinz Von Foerster

First-order cybernetics is the science of observed systems; Second-order cybernetics is the science of observing systems. — Heinz Von Foerster

If you desire to see, learn how to act. — Heinz Von Foerster

Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without an observer. — Heinz Von Foerster

I shall act always so as to increase the total number of choices. — Heinz Von Foerster

Act always so as to increase the number of choices — Heinz Von Foerster

Something that cannot be explained cannot be seen. — Heinz Von Foerster

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

What we need now is the description of the "describer" or, in other words, we need a theory of the observer. — Heinz Von Foerster

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

The environment as we perceive it is our invention, — Heinz Von Foerster

Should one name one central concept, a first principle, of cybernetics, it would be circularity. — Heinz Von Foerster

Cybernetics is NOT the banana. — Heinz Von Foerster

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