View source for Macy Conferences

The ten Macy Conferences, held between 1946 and 1953, were the first organised approach to interdisciplinarity, spawning breakthroughs in systems theory and cybernetics.

The "core group" of scientists participating in all or most of the conferences were: 

*[[Gregory Bateson]], anthropologist 
*[[Julian Bigelow]], electro technician 
*[[Heinz von Foerster]], biophysicist 
*Lawrence K. Frank, social scientist 
*Ralph W. Gerard, neuro physiologist 
*Molly Harrower, psychologist 
*Lawrence Kubie, psychiatrist 
*Paul Lazarsfeld, sociologist 
*Kurt Lewin, psychologist 
*[[Warren McCulloch]] (chair), psychiatrist 
*[[Margaret Mead]], anthropologist 
*[[John von Neumann]], mathematician 
*[[Walter Pitts]], mathematician 
*[[Arturo Rosenblueth]], physiologist 
*Leonard J. Savage, mathematician 
*[[Norbert Wiener]], mathematician 

In addition to the core group a number of invited guests participated in the conferences, including information theorist [[Claude Shannon]] and geneticist and biophysicist [[Max Delbrück]]

The inaugural Macy Conference held in March 1946 was entitled "Feedback Mechanisms and Circular Causal Systems in Biological and Social Systems." At this conference [[Norbert Wiener]] presented an overview of automatic mechanisms for self-regulation and [[Arturo Rosenblueth]] described purposive behavior and teleological mechanisms.

==Links==
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macy_Conferences
*http://www.asc-cybernetics.org/foundations/history/MacySummary.htm

[[Category:Post-War Cybernetics]]