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Perception of the future and the future of perception

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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).

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois

    Heinz von Foerster

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  1. Heinz von Foerster
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This article is an adaptation of an address given on March 29, 1971, at the opening of the Twenty-fourth Annual Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.

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von Foerster, H. Perception of the future and the future of perception. Instr Sci 1, 31–43 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053969

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053969

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