Library Organization

Biological Computer Laboratory

University of Illinois research center, founded 1958 by Heinz von Foerster, central to second-order cybernetics.

Type
Organization
Creators
Heinz von Foerster, Heinz von Foerster
Subjects
Cybernetics Computation Perception

Founded in 1958 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Heinz von Foerster, who directed it until 1975, the Biological Computer Laboratory (BCL) studied the computational principles of living systems — self-organization, neural modeling, and cognition — becoming a major hub for second-order cybernetics and drawing frequent visitors including Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela.