"CYBERETHICS": A PANEL DISCUSSION
Stuart A. Umpleby · Cybernetics & Systems · 1999
HEINZ VON FOERSTER: Ever since Allan M. Turing commented on Kurt Goedel’s Paper `Ueber formal unentscheidbare Saetze s der Principia Matematica and verwandter Systeme I’ ’ Monatshelfte s . . Math. Phys. 38, 1921 173 ] 198 , under the title `On computable numbers with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem,’ ’ the German word `Entscheidungsproblem’ ’ has been absorbed in the English scientific discourse to refer to problems, propositions, and questions whose solvability, decidability, and answerability is under question. Both Turing and Goedel have shown that even within the most carefully developed systems of formal thought undecidables arise. I would like to draw to the attention of my cybernetic colleagues that not only in these lofty, abstract realms of logic but also in the language of daily life we are vis-a-vis of in principle undecidable questions. For instance: ` was the defendant temporarily insane when he committed the crime? ’’ Or `how did the universe come into being? ’’ How can I say these are in principle undecidable questions when there are so many answers given to them?