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Macy conferences
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ten Macy Conferences between 1946 and 1953 were the first organised approach to interdisciplinarity, spawning breakthroughs in systems theory and leading to the foundation of what later was to be known as cybernetics. They were organised by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
The participants were leading scientists from a wide range of fields. Casual recollections of several participants stress the communicative difficulties in the beginning, giving way to the gradual establishment of a common language powerful enough to communicate the intricacies of the various fields of expertise present.
The scientist participating in all or most of the conferences are known as the "core group". They include:
- Gregory Bateson / anthropologist
- Julian Bigelow / electro technician
- Heinz von Foerster / biophysicist
- Lawrence K. Frank / social scientist
- Ralph W. Gerard / neuro physiologist
- Molly Harrower / psychologist
- Lawrence Kubie / psychatrist
- Paul Lazarsfeld / sociologist
- Kurt Lewin / psychologist
- Warren McCulloch (chair) / psychatrist
- Margaret Mead / anthropologist
- John von Neumann / mathematician
- Walter Pitts / mathematician
- Arturo Rosenblueth / physiologist
- Leonard J. Savage / mathematician
- Norbert Wiener / mathematician
In addition to the core group several invited guests participated in the conferences. Amongst many others:
- Claude Shannon / information theorist
- Max Delbrück / geneticist and biophysicist
- Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference; Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York (1949)
- Cybernetics: Transactions of the Seventh Conference; Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York (Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber)(1950)
- Cybernetics: Transactions of the Eighth Conference; Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York (Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber) (1952)
- Cybernetics: Transactions of the Ninth Conference; Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York (Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber) (1953)
- Cybernetics: Transactions of the Tenth Conference; Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, New York (Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead, Hans Lukas Teuber) (1955)
- Cybernetics - Kybernetik The Macy-Conferences 1946-1953 herausgegeben von Claus Pias (2 Bände)