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Perception of the Future and the
Future of Perception*
HEINZ VON FOERSTER
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
Abstract
“The definition of a problem and the action taken to solve it largely depend
on the view which the individuals or groups that discovered the problem
have of the system to which it refers. A problem may thus find itself defined
as a badly interpreted output, or as a faulty output of a faulty output device,
or as a faulty output due to a malfunction in an otherwise faultless system,
or as a correct but undesired output from a faultless and thus undesirable
system. All definitions but the last suggest corrective action; only the last
definition suggests change, and so presents an unsolvable problem to
anyone opposed to change” (Herbert Brün, 1971).
Truisms have the disadvantage that by dulling the senses they obscure
the truth. Almost nobody will become alarmed when told that in times of
continuity the future equals the past. Only a few will become aware that
from this follows that in times of socio-cultural change the future will
not
be like the past. Moreover, with a future not clearly perceived, we do not
know how to act with only one certainty left: if we don't act ourselves, we
shall be acted upon. Thus, if we wish to be subjects, rather than objects, what
we see now, that is, our perception, must be foresight rather than hindsight.
Epidemic
My colleagues and I are, at present, researching the mysteries of cognition
and perception. When, from time to time, we look through the windows of
our laboratory into the affairs of this world, we become more and more dis-
tressed by what we now observe. The world appears to be in the grip of a
fast-spreading disease which, by now, has assumed almost global dimen-
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