Computation and Metaphysics

Rudolf Kaehr

Beyond Marxism and Cybernetics

With the Hyäne des Pentagon" at the Checkpoint Charley

With the Science (Fiction) Avantgarde

The Vietnam War and the End of Switching

Computation and Metaphysics today


1. Gotthard Günther, Selbstdarstellung im Spiegel Amerikas, in: L.J. Pongratz (Hrsg.), Philosophie in Selbstdarstellungen Bd. II, Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1975, pp. 1-76

2. BCL: Biological Computer Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., USA, 1957-1976

3. Dr. Marie Günther-Hendel, jewish, teacher and founder of a Free school in Italy

4. Gotthard Günther, Idee und Grundriss einer nicht-Aristotelischen Logik, Meiner Verlag Hamburg 1959

5. Gunther-WEB: www.vordenker.de and www.techno.net/pcl

6. Realitäten und Rationalitäten, A. Ziemke, R. Kaehr (eds) , Selbstorganisation, Bd. 6, Dunker&Humblot, Berlin 1995

7. JPRS: Joint Publications Research Service, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Cal., USA

8. In 1958 the first full scale implementation of a ternary computer was completed by a Russian team at the Computing Center of Moscow State University, and named Setun´. It was used for some time, but both poor hardware reliability and inadequate software hampered its usage." Computer Science and Multiple-Valued Logic, (ed.) David C. Rhine, North-Holland, 1984, p. 7, cf. Cybernetics and the Dialectic Materialism of Marx and Lenin, footnote 18, this book

9. Report on Zinovyev. In: Nachlass Gotthard Günther, 21. Kasten, Mappe 252, Staatsbibliothek Berlin

10. Gordon Pask, The Originality of Cybernetics and the Cybernetics of Originality, 1982, cf. footnotes 25 and 29, this paper.

11. Gotthard Günther, Logistik und Transzendentallogik, in: Beiträge zu einer operationsfähigen Dialektik, Bd. I, Felix Meiner Verlag, 1976

12. A. Tarski, Einführung in die mathematische Logik, Verlag Jul. Springer, Berlin 1938

13. Aus heutiger Sicht sind diese Versuche einer mathematischen Modellierung dialektischer Widersprüche bestenfalls von historischem Interesse. Sie haben weder die Philosophie noch die Kybernetik substantiell bereichert." K. Günter Kröber, Kybernetik als mathematische Theorie dialektischer Widersprüche, in: Kybernetik steckt den Osten an - Wiener's Ideen in Osteuropa und der DDR, Kolloquium der Gesellschaft für Kybernetik e. V., Nov. 2000; cf. http://www.kybernetiknet.de/

14. Gotthard Günther, Identität, Gegenidentität und Negativsprache, in: Wilhelm R. Beyer (ed.), Hegel-Jahrbuch 1979, Pahl-Rugenstein, Köln 1980, pp. 22-88

15. Gotthard Günther, Das Bewusstsein der Maschinen, Eine Metaphysik der Kybernetik, Agis Verlag, 2. Aufl., Baden-Baden1963

16. Gotthard Günther, Die amerikanische Apokalypse, Kurt Klagenfurt (ed.), Profil Verlag München, Wien 2000

17. this book

18. Phäidros und das Segelflugzeug. Von der Architektonik der Vernunft zur technischen Utopie. Gespräche mit Claus Baldus. In: Das Abenteuer der Ideen. Architektur und Philosophie seit der industriellen Revolution, Katalog zur internationalen Bauausstellung, Berln 1987, pp.69-88

19. Gotthard Gunther, Number and Logos, Unforgettable Hours with Warren St. McCulloch. In: Selbstorganisation, pp. 318-348

20. Gotthard Gunther, Cybernetic Ontology and Transjunctional Operations, Technical Report No. 4, Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., Sponsored by: National Science Foundation, Grant 17414, Washington 25, DC.

21. Self-Organizing Systems, M.C. Yovits et al (eds.), Spartan Books, Washington, D.C., pp. 313-392, 1962

22. Gotthard Gunther, A Study of new Development in Dialectic Theory in Marxist Countries and their Significance for the USA, 13 pp., 1970

23. Gotthard Gunther, Proposal for the Continuation of a Mathematical System for Decision Making Machines, Under Grant AF-AFOSR 68-1391 for One Year From 15 October 1970, July 31, 1970

24. "But then came the Mansfield Amendment. Most of the early work on cybernetics had been supported by the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. But in about 1968 the Mansfield Amendment put an end to research projects supported by the Department of Defense which were not clearly related to a military mission. It was intended that the National Science Foundation and other agencies would pick up the support of projects that had been funded by DOD. The problem of course was that these agencies did not have people who were familiar with the work in cybernetics. There followed several frustrating years of searching for new sources of support. Meanwhile Ross Ashby and Gotthard Gunther had retired and left the University. Finally in 1975 Heinz retired and moved to California." Stuart A. Umpleby, Heinz Von Foerster, A Second Order Cybernetician. In: Cybernetics Forum, Vol IX, Fall 1979, N. 3, pp. 5-6

25. BCL, The Complete Publication of the Biological Computer Laboratory, Wilson, von Foerster (eds.), Illinois Blueprint Corp., Peoria, Ill 61603, 1976

26. Gotthard Gunther, Proposal for the Continuation, pp. 6-7

27. Personal remark. I gave him a beautiful book about water skiing from the American thrift shop Berlin.

28. Gotthard Günther, Lebenslinien der Subjektivität, Kybernetische Reflexionen, CD, c+p 2000 suppose, Köln 2000

29. Gotthard Günther, Beiträge zu einer operationsfähigen Dialektik, Bd. I-III, Felix Meiner Verlag, Hamburg 1976 ff.

30. Brian Cantwell Smith, SMITH-bio.html, 1999, cf. B.C. Smith, On the Origin of Objects, MIT Press, 1996