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described in chapter two. His work in Cybernetics during and
after the War led him to develop theories of whole systems, mind-
body interaction and co-evolution. Indeed it was through Bateson's
influence that Cybernetics, whose influence had declined since its
heyday in the
1950
s, enjoyed a revival in the late
1960
s and early
'
Bateson organized a conference, which built upon the
legacy of the Macy Conferences, but brought questions regarding
the observer and reflexivity to bear upon the points the conferences
had raised, and which drew upon the work of cybernetic researchers
such as Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela.
70
s. In
1968
second-order cybernetics
One of the problems was that the Cybernetics that emerged out of
the Macy Conferences and elsewhere in the
s was
typical of its period. It was largely based on engineering paradigms,
and was interested in idealized systems of homeostasis and feed-
back. It adhered to the traditional scientific view of the observer as
standing outside of the system being observed. It could thus be
considered paradigmatic of the Cold War era, in which the main
issues were that of effective and efficient control and communica-
tion. Throughout the period of the Macy Conferences the question
of reflexivity and the role of the observer was not discussed or
problematized. Cybernetics by its very nature could not entirely
ignore the role of the observer. But in the event, only the psycho-
analyst Lawrence Kubie attempted to bring such questions into the
discussions during the original conferences. Kubie's combative style
of argumentation apparently did not help his cause and his ideas
failed to become part of the cybernetic paradigm.
11
Out of their experiences as part of a team studying a frog's per-
ception processes, Maturana and Varela had determined that for any
organism reality comes into existence through interactive processes
determined by its own organization. Out of these observations they
1940
s and '
50
