Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Cybernetics in Chile: a history with unexpected chapters

  • Original Article
  • Published:
AI & SOCIETY Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

During the sixties, a most curious symbiosis took hold between Heinz von Foerster (1911–2002) then the Director of a top-notch and lavishly funded US laboratory [Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL), 1958–1975] and the Chilean neuroscientist Humberto R. Maturana (1928–2021) professor at the Universidad de Chile. The chance encounter between them triggered a long-lasting friendship and a fundamental change in our understanding of Systems Science. In particular the contributions of Biology of Cognition and Autopoiesis are important to understand this change and the years 1968–1973 are particularly relevant. In this period, Maturana published, as a Technical Report of BCL, the foundational document The Neurophysiology of Cognition. Later, in 1973, the book De Maquinas y Seres Vivos put forward the notion of Autopoietic Systems. Also, between 1971 and 1973, the Allende government tried to cybernitize the Chilean economy with the SYNCO project. In that project, Maturana and von Foerster played a role by teaching Cybernetics to the engineers and administrators of this technological dream. During this same time, Cybernetics was important in Chile and Professors Maturana and von Foerster although not directly involved in the day-to-day running of SYNCO were important in that unique effort. When a military coup deposed Allende and sent Chile into a tailspin of right-wing retribution (9-11-1973), von Foerster, a foreigner who loved Chile and its people, did his outmost to assure the safety of many people involved in this unique Latin American Cybernetics dream.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

taken from brain sciences) could be translated to metabolic networks. This is the basic theme of De Maquinas y Seres Vivos (Maturana and Varel, 1972) that introduced the notion of Autopoietic Systems

Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. During WWII von Foerster had worked, in Austria, in advancing vacuum tube technology.

  2. The UNCTAD building, the showcase of Allende´s government, became the seat of the Military Government after 1973.

  3. Fortunately the list of students who attended that 6-week seminar is displayed in Wilson (1974).

  4. This wide swath of translation of Autopoiesis to such diverse fields should be a topic for a future paper.

References

  • Beer S (1984) The viable system model: its provenance, development, methodology and pathology. J Oper Res Soc 35(1):7. https://doi.org/10.2307/2581927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biggart J (1998) Alexander Bogdanov and the origins of systems thinking in Russia. Ashgate, Aldershot Brookfield (ISBN: 185972678X)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dıaz J, Razeto-Barry P, Letelier JC, Caprio J, Bacigalupo J (2007) Amplitude modulation patterns of local field potentials reveal asynchronous neuronal populations. J Neurosci 27(34):9238–9245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dıaz J, Bassi A, Coolen A, Vivaldi E, Letelier JC (2018) Envelope analysis links oscillatory and arrhythmic EEG activities to two types of neuronal synchronization. Neuroimage 172:575–585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eden M (2014) Cybernetic revolutionaries. MIT Press Ltd., p 342 (ISBN: 0262525968)

    Google Scholar 

  • Flores F (1982) Management and communication in the office of the future. PhD thesis. University of California (Berkeley)

  • Hodgkiv AL, Huxley AF (1952) A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve. J Physiol. 117(4):500-544. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1952.sp004764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuffler SW (1952) Neurons in the retina; organization, inhibition and excitation problems. Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol. 17:281-92. https://doi.org/10.1101/sqb.1952.017.01.026

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Letelier JC, Marín G, Mpodozis J (2003) Autopoietic and (M, R) systems. J Theoret Biol 222(2):261–272. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-5193(03)00034-1 (ISSN: 0022-5193)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Letelier JC, Soto-Andrade J, Guíñez-Abarzúa F, Cornish-Bowden A, Cárdenas ML (2006) Organizational invariance and metabolic closure: analysis in terms of (M, R) systems. J Theor Biol 238(4):949–961

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Letelier JC, Cárdenas ML, Cornish-Bowden A (2011) From L’Homme Machine to metabolic closure: steps towards understanding life. J Theoret Biol 286(1):100–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2011.06 (ISSN: 1095-8541)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Lettvin J, Maturana H, McCulloch W, Pitts W (1959) What the frog’s eye tells the frog’s brain. In: Proceedings of the IRE 47.11, pp. 1940–1951. ISSN: 2162–6634. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JRPROC.1959.287207.

  • Luhmann N (1996) Social systems. Stanford University Press, p 684 (ISBN: 0804726256)

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H (1969) Biology of cognition (BCL Report 9.0). Tech. rep. Biological Computer Laboratory, University of Illinois, p 95

  • Maturana H (1970) Neurophysiology of cognition. In: Garvin P. (ed.) Cognition: A multiple view. Spartan Books, New York: 3–23. Available at https://cepa.info/536

  • Maturana H, Varela F (1972) De Maquinas y Seres Vivos. Editorial Universitaria, Santiago

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H, Varela F (1980) Autopoiesis and Cognition. Springer Netherlands, p 180 (ISBN: 9027710155)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H, Varela F (1992) The tree of knowledge : the biological roots of human understanding. Shambhala Distributed in the U.S. by Random House, Boston (ISBN: 9780877736424)

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H, Mpodozis J (2000) The origin of species by means of natural drift. Rev Chil Hist Nat 73:2. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0716-078x2000000200005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H, Uribe G, Frenk S (1968) A biological theory of relativistic colour coding in the primate retina. Arch Biol Med Exp 1:1–30 (ISSN: 0004-0533. ppublish)

    Google Scholar 

  • Maturana H, Varela F, Bencke R (1983) El Arbol del Conocimiento. Editorial Universitaria

    Google Scholar 

  • Pias C (2016) Cybernetics: the Macy Conferences 1946–1953: the complete transactions. Diaphanes, Zurich (ISBN: 9783037345986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen R (1958a) A relational theory of biological systems. Bull Math Biophys 20(3):245–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02478302

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen R (1958b) The representation of biological systems from the standpoint of the theory of categories. Bull Math Biophys 20(4):317–341. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02477890

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen R (1959) A relational theory of biological systems II. Bull Math Biophys 21(2):109–128

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen R (2005) Life itself. Columbia University Press, p 285 (ISBN: 0231075650)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblueth A, Wiener N, Bigelow J (1943) Behavior, purpose and teleology. Philos Sci 10(1):18–24. https://doi.org/10.1086/286788

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schumacher P (2011) The autopoiesis of architecture : a new framework for architecture. Wiley, Chichester (ISBN: 780470772997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwember H (1977) Cybernetics in government: experience with new tools for management in Chile 1971–1973. In: Concepts and tools of computer-assisted policy analysis. Birkhäuser, Basel, pp 79–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5570-9_3

  • Tsirigotis A (2017) Cybernetics, warfare and discourse. Springer-Verlag GmbH (ISBN: 319508466)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Uribe R (1983) The view from the paradoxical world. PhD thesis. Brunel University. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5500. Accessed 20 Dec 2021

  • Varela F, Lachaux JP, Rodriguez E, Martinerie J (2001) The brainweb: phase synchronization and large-scale integration. Nat Rev Neurosci 2(4):229–239. https://doi.org/10.1038/35067550

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Foerster H (1951) Cybernetics: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems. Transactions of the Seventh Conference, March 23-24, 1950, New York. Heinz von Foerster, Ed. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation

  • von Foerster H (2002) Last public appearance of Heinz von Foerster talking about Humberto Maturana. Ed. by California Mental Research Institute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6t9GUtIrqM. Accessed 20 Dec 2021

  • Wiener N (1961) Cybernetics; or, Control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948 Edition, 2nd revised 1961). M.I.T. Press, New York (ISBN: 9780262730099)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson KL (1974) The cybernetics of cognitive processes. (BCL Report 9.2). https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:td640zq7618/td640zq7618.pdf. Accessed 20 Dec 2021

  • Winograd T, Flores F (1987) Understanding computers and cognition. Pearson Education (US), p 224 (ISBN: 0201112973)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Yovits M, Cameron S (eds) (1960) Self-organising systems: proceedings of an interdisciplinary conference, 5 and 6 May, 1959. Pergamon Press, Berlin

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Yovits M, Jacobi GT (eds) (1962) Symposium on principles of self-organization-June 1960. Literary Licensing, LLC (ISBN: 9781258715038)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Correo Central, Santiago, Chile

    Juan-Carlos Letelier

Authors
  1. Juan-Carlos Letelier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan-Carlos Letelier.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Letelier, JC. Cybernetics in Chile: a history with unexpected chapters. AI & Soc 37, 1105–1113 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01344-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01344-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation