EMCSR'96 Plenary Lecture
Tuesday, April 9, 1996, 10:00 am
University of Vienna, Great Festival Hall
Prof.Dr.Ernst von GLASERSFELD
Scientific Reasoning Research Institute (SRRI)
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA
USA
The Cybernetic Art of Living
The scientific and technological exploits of cybernetics will no doubt
be copiously represented at this conference. Much less, I suspect, will
be said about the fundamental support a cybernetic attitude can supply
to those who search for balance in their own lives rather than power
and control over others. Through no fault or merit of my own I came to
live for much of my time as a vagabond in a variety of countries and
disciplines. In retrospect, I feel that this taught me to see the
cybernetic way of thinking as an eminently useful tool in the practice
of living. To me, indeed, it is the art of creating equilibrium in a
world of possibilities and constraints. I shall try to make this
definition plausible with the help of a few examples.