Heinz von Foerster: Description

Heinz von Foerster was Austrian American scientist and cybernetician. Explore interesting quotes on description.
Heinz von Foerster: 22 quotes1 like

“To remove these one had to account for an “observer” (that is at least for one subject):
(i) Observations are not absolute but relative to an observer’s point of view (i. e., his coordinate system: Einstein);
(ii) Observations affect the observed so as to obliterate the observer’s hope for prediction (i. e., his uncertainty is absolute: Heisenberg).
After this, we are now in the possession of the truism that a description (of the universe) implies one who describes it”

Heinz von Foerster

observes it
Source: 1980s, Notes on an epistemology for living things, 1981, p.258

“What we need now is the description of the “describer” or, in other words, we need a theory of the observer.”

Heinz von Foerster

Source: 1980s, Notes on an epistemology for living things, 1981, p.258

“While in the first quarter of this century physicists and cosmologists were forced to revise the basic notions that govern the natural sciences, in the last quarter of this century biologists will force a revision of the basic notions that govern science itself. After that “first revolution” it was clear that the classical concept of an “ultimate science”, that is an objective description of the world in which there are no subjects (a “subjectless universe”), contains contradictions.”

Heinz von Foerster

Source: 1980s, Notes on an epistemology for living things, 1981, p.258