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

“Everything that is said is said by an observer.”

— 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

“The aesthetical imperative: If you desire to see, learn how to act”

— Heinz von Foerster

Cybernetics is NOT the banana.

— Heinz von Foerster

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

— Heinz von Foerster

Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without an observer.

— 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

Objectivity is a subject's delusion that observing can be done without him

— 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

The environment as we perceive it is our invention,

— 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,…

— Heinz von Foerster