Symposium on Principles of Self-Organization explained

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]

Notes and References

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