Heinz von Foerster

Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian American scientist and polymath specialising in physics and philosophy.

Heinz von Foerster is considered as the originator of Second-order cybernetics.

Additionally, he made contributions in diverse fields including computer science, artificial intelligence, epistemology, high-speed electronics and electro-optics switching devices, memory and knowledge. He worked on cognition based on neurophysiology, mathematics, and philosophy and was called "one of the most consequential thinkers in the history of cybernetics".

Second-order cybernetics as understood by Heinz and also in the context of Dialogic Design Science is different from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle because events at the atomic level are quite different from the biology of cognition.