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. It was sponsored by the Information Systems Branch of the U.S. Office of Naval Research.
Participants There were 38 male participants:
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.
References