ABSTRACT

This article analyses how Heinz von Foerster’s Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) translated cybernetic concepts into an experimental pedagogy tailored to the interests of the youth of the American intellectual counterculture. The existing research literature assumes that the opening of BCL to the counterculture in the early 1970s was the result of a radical shift from first- to second-order cybernetic theory; in other words, the result of a new epistemological position. This article instead attempts to identify similarities between the design of cybernetic ‘learning machines’ in the early 1960s and Foerster’s teaching methods that characterised BCL between 1968 and 1976. The article will show that Foerster’s pedagogy was inspired by a specific style of thinking that can already be found in earlier cybernetic research practices. Concerning both the early and the late phase of the BCL, oral history sources, as well as original publications and archival material, were used.

摘要

本文分析了亨氏·冯·福斯特（Heinz von Foerster）的生物计算机实验室（BCL）如何将控制论概念转化为适合美国知识反文化青年的兴趣的实验教学法。现有的研究文献假设BCL在1970年代初期对反文化的开放是从一阶控制论到二阶控制论的根本转变的结果。换句话说，是新认识论立场的结果。本文而是尝试确定1960年代初期控制论的“学习机”的设计与1968年至1976年Foerster的BCL的教学方法之间的相似之处。该文章将表明Foerster的教学法受到了已经可以实现的特定思维方式的启发可以在较早的控制论研究实践中找到。