Symposium on Principles of Self-Organization

The Symposium on Principles of Self-Organization was held at Allerton House on 8–9 June 1960. It was a key conference in the development of cybernetics and was in many ways a continuation of the Macy Conferences. it was organised by Heinz von Foerster through the Biological Computer Laboratory based at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[1] It was sponsored by the Information Systems Branch of the U.S. Office of Naval Research.[2]

Participants

There were 38 male participants:[1]

Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois

This was the host organisation.

  • Murray Babcock
  • Heinz von Foerster
  • Alfred Inselberg
  • Lars Löfgren
  • Albert Mullin
  • Albert Novikoff
  • Paul Weston
  • George Zopf

Other participants from Illinois

  • John Bowman, Technological Institute, Northwestern University
  • Scott Cameron, Armour Research Foundation
  • Peter Greene, Committee on Mathematical Biology, University of Chicago
  • Friedrich Hayek, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
  • George Jacobi, Armour Research Foundation
  • John R. Platt, Department of Physics, University of Chicago
  • Stephen Sherwood, Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, Chicago
  • A Shimbel, Illinois State Psychiatric Institute, Chicago

Cambridge Massachusetts

  • Manuel Blum, W. S. McCulloch Room, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • Jack Cowan, W. S. McCulloch Room, MIT
  • Jerome I. Elkind, Bolt, Beranek, Newman Inc.
  • Warren McCulloch, W. S. McCulloch Room, MIT
  • Leo Verbeek, W. S. McCulloch Room, MIT

Other participants

  • Saul Amarel, Radio Corporation of America
  • Ross Ashby,
  • Stafford Beer, United Steel Companies
  • Ludwig von Bertalanffy
  • Raymond Beurle, English Electric Valve Company
  • Hewitt Crane, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California
  • Joseph Hawkins
  • Hans Oestriecher
  • Gordon Pask
  • Anatol Rapaport
  • Charles Rosen
  • Frank Rosenblatt
  • Jack E. Steele
  • Roger Sperry
  • John Tooley
  • David Willis
  • Marshal Yovits

Two women participated, Kathy Forbes providing secretarial services and Cornelia Schaeffer of Athenium Publishers providing assistance in preparing the subsequent publication of the transactions of the symposium.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Hutchinson, Jamie. ""Nerve center" of the cybernetic world Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory". Biological Computer Laboratory. University of Illinois. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Frontispiece". International Tracts in Computer Science and Technology and Their Application. 9 (Principles of Self-Organization). 1962.
  3. ^ "Preface". International Tracts in Computer Science and Technology and Their Application. 9 (Principles of Self-Organization). 1962.