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The Macy Conferences were a set of meetings of scholars from various disciplines held in New York by the initiative of Warren McCulloch and the Macy Foundation from 1946 to 1953. The principal purpose of these series of conferences was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind.

It was one of the first organized studies of interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity

In academia, pedagogy, physical sciences, earth sciences, human sciences and social sciences in general, an 'interdisciplinary field' is a term of art in the teaching professions, whereas the terms 'multidisciplinary field' or have become the hallmark of many modern technical professions which must cross traditional academic boun...
, spawning breakthroughs in systems theory
Systems theory

Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specifically, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result....
, cybernetics
Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory....
, and what later became known as cognitive science
Cognitive science

Cognitive science may be concisely defined as the study of the nature of intelligence. It draws on multiple empirical disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, sociology and biology....
.

Macy Conferences were organised by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation

The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation is a philanthropic Foundation founded in 1930 by Kate Macy Ladd in honor of her father, who died at a young age....
, motivated by Lawrence K.






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The Macy Conferences were a set of meetings of scholars from various disciplines held in New York by the initiative of Warren McCulloch and the Macy Foundation from 1946 to 1953. The principal purpose of these series of conferences was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind.

It was one of the first organized studies of interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity

In academia, pedagogy, physical sciences, earth sciences, human sciences and social sciences in general, an 'interdisciplinary field' is a term of art in the teaching professions, whereas the terms 'multidisciplinary field' or have become the hallmark of many modern technical professions which must cross traditional academic boun...
, spawning breakthroughs in systems theory
Systems theory

Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science and the study of the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specifically, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result....
, cybernetics
Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory....
, and what later became known as cognitive science
Cognitive science

Cognitive science may be concisely defined as the study of the nature of intelligence. It draws on multiple empirical disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, linguistics, anthropology, computer science, sociology and biology....
.

Overview

The Macy Conferences were organised by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation

The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation is a philanthropic Foundation founded in 1930 by Kate Macy Ladd in honor of her father, who died at a young age....
, motivated by Lawrence K. Frank and Frank Fremont-Smith
Frank Fremont-Smith

Frank Fremont-Smith was an American administrator, executive with the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, president of British John Rawlings Rees's World Federation of Mental Health, know together with Lawrence K....
 of the Macy Foundation. The participants were leading scientists from a wide range of fields. Casual recollections of several participants stress the communicative difficulties in the beginning, giving way to the gradual establishment of a common language powerful enough to communicate the intricacies of the various fields of expertise present.

The scientists participating in all or most of the conferences are known as the "core group." They include:

  • William Ross Ashby
    William Ross Ashby

    W. Ross Ashby was an England psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of complex systems. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby....
    ; psychiatrist
  • Gregory Bateson
    Gregory Bateson

    Gregory Bateson was a United Kingdom anthropology, social sciences, linguistics, semiotics and cybernetics whose work intersected that of many other fields....
    ; anthropologist
  • Julian Bigelow
    Julian Bigelow

    Julian Bigelow was a pioneering computer engineer.Bigelow obtained a master's degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying electrical engineering and mathematics....
    ; electro technician
  • Heinz von Foerster
    Heinz von Foerster

    Heinz von Foerster was an Austrian American scientist combining physics and philosophy. Together with Warren McCulloch, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Lawrence J....
    ; biophysicist
  • Lawrence K. Frank; social scientist
  • Ralph W. Gerard
    Ralph W. Gerard

    Ralph Waldo Gerard was an American neurophysiologist and behavioral scientist known for his wide-ranging work on the nervous system, nerve metabolism, psychopharmacology, and biological basis of schizophrenia....
    ; neuro physiologist
  • Molly Harrower
    Molly Harrower

    Molly Harrower was a pioneering clinical psychologist who devised a Rorschach test for group therapy. She published a classic article concerning the psychology of Nazi war criminals as determined by the Rorschach....
    ; psychologist
  • Lawrence Kubie; psychatrist
  • Paul Lazarsfeld
    Paul Lazarsfeld

    Paul Felix Lazarsfeld was one of the major figures in 20th-century American Sociology. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau for Applied Social Research, he exerted a tremendous influence over the techniques and the organization of research....
    ; sociologist
  • Kurt Lewin
    Kurt Lewin

    Kurt Zadek Lewin , a German-born psychology, is one of the modern pioneers of social psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and applied psychology....
    ; psychologist
  • Warren McCulloch (chair); psychatrist
  • Margaret Mead
    Margaret Mead

    Margaret Mead was an United States cultural anthropology, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
    ; anthropologist
  • John von Neumann
    John von Neumann

    John von Neumann was a Hungarian American mathematician who made major contributions to a vast range of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, continuous geometry, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis, hydrodynamics , and statistics, as well as many other mathematical...
    ; mathematician
  • Walter Pitts
    Walter Pitts

    Walter Pitts was a logician who worked in the field of cognitive psychology.He proposed landmark theoretical formulations of neural activity and emergent processes that influenced diverse fields such as cognitive sciences and psychology, philosophy, neurosciences, computer science, artificial neural networks, cybernetics and artificial in...
    ; mathematician
  • Arturo Rosenblueth
    Arturo Rosenblueth

    Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns was a Mexico researcher, physician and physiology, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics....
    ; physiologist
  • Leonard J. Savage; mathematician
  • Norbert Wiener
    Norbert Wiener

    Norbert Wiener was an United States theoretical and applied math mathematician.Wiener was a pioneer in the study of stochastic processes and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems....
    ; mathematician


In addition to the core group several invited guests participated in the conferences. Amongst many others:
  • Max Delbrück
    Max Delbrück

    Max Ludwig Henning Delbr?ck was a German-American biophysicist and Nobel prize....
    ; geneticist and biophysicist
  • Erik Erikson
    Erik Erikson

    Erik Homburger Erikson was a Denmark-Germany-United States Developmental psychology and psychoanalyst known for his Erikson's stages of psychosocial development of human beings....
    ; psychologist
  • Claude Shannon; information theorist


Some of the researchers present at the conferences later went on to do extensive government funded research on the psychological effects of LSD, and its potential as a tool for interrogation and psychological manipulation in such projects as the CIA's MKULTRA program.

Conference topics


This is a sampling of the topics discussed each year.

1946, March (NYC)
  • Self-regulating and teleological mechanisms
  • Simulated neural network
    Neural network

    Traditionally, the term neural network had been used to refer to a network or circuit of neuron. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes....
    s emulating the calculus of propositional logic
  • Anthropology
    Anthropology

    Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
     and how computer
    Computer

    A computer is a machine that manipulates Data according to a list of Code .The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century , although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier....
    s might learn how to learn
  • Object perception's ]]feedback mechanisms
  • Perceptual differences due to brain damage
    Brain damage

    Brain damage, or acquired brain injury, is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells....
  • Deriving ethics
    Ethics

    Ethics is a word for a philosophy that encompasses proper conduct and good living. It is significantly broader than the common conception of ethics as the analyzing of right and wrong....
     from science
  • Compulsive repetitive behavior


1946, October (NYC)
  • Teleological mechanisms in society
  • Concepts from Gestalt psychology
    Gestalt psychology

    Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holism, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies; or, that the whole is different from the sum of its parts....
  • Tactile and chemical communications among ant soldieres


1947, March (NYC)
  • Child psychology


1947, October (NYC)
  • The field perspective on psychology
  • Analog vs. digital approaches to psychological models


1948, Spring (NYC)
  • Formation of "I" in language
  • Formal modeling applied to chicken pecking order formation


1949, March (NYC)
  • Are the number of neuron
    Neuron

    Neurons are responsive cell in the nervous system that process and transmit information by electrochemical Signal . They are the core components of the brain, the vertebrate spinal cord, the invertebrate ventral nerve cord, and the peripheral nerves....
    s and their connections sufficient to account for human capacities?
  • Memory
    Memory

    In psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of mnemonic....
  • An appeal for collaboration between physics and psychology


1950, March (NYC)
  • Analog vs. digital interpretations of the mind
  • Language and Shannon
    Shannon

    Shannon is a given name.Notable people bearing this name include* Shannon , real name Shannon Brenda Greene* Marty Wilde, pseudonym "Shannon", real name Reginald Leonard Smith...
    's information theory
    Information theory

    Information theory is a branch of applied mathematics and electrical engineering involving the quantification of information. Historically, information theory was developed by Claude E....
  • Language, symbols and neurosis
    Neurosis

    Neurosis , also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, is a term that refers to any mental imbalance that causes distress, but, unlike a psychosis or some personality disorders, does not prevent or affect rational thought....
  • Intelligibility
    Intelligibility

    Intelligibility is for voice communications, the capability of being understood - the quality of language that is comprehensible language or thought....
     in speech communications
  • A formal analysis of semantic redundancy in printed English


1951, March (NYC)
  • Information as semantic
  • Can automatons engage in deductive logic?
  • Decision theory
    Decision theory

    Decision theory in mathematics and statistics is concerned with identifying the values, uncertainty and other issues relevant in a given decision making and the resulting optimal decision....
  • Small group dynamics and group communications
  • The applicability of game theory to psychic motivations
  • The type of language needed to analyze language
  • Mere behavior vs. true communication
  • Is psychiatry scientific?
  • Can a mental event that creates a memory ever be unconscious?


1952, March (NYC)
  • The relation of neurophysiological details to broad issues in philosophy and epistemology
  • The relation of cybernetics
    Cybernetics

    Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory....
     at the microlevel to biochemical and cellular processes
  • The complexity
    Complexity

    In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are reflected in this article....
     of organisms as a function of information
  • Humor, communication, and paradox
  • Do chess playing automatons need randomness to defeat humans?
  • Homeostasis
    Homeostasis

    Homeostasis is the property of a system, either open system or closed system, that regulates its internal environment and tends to maintain a stable, constant condition....
     and learning


1953, April (Princeton)
  • How neural mechanisms can recognize shapes and musical chords
  • What consensus, if any, the Macy Conferences have arrived at

See also

  • Cybernetics
    Cybernetics

    Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory....
  • Complex systems
    Complex systems

    Complex systems is a scientific field which studies the common properties of systems considered complex in nature, society and science. It is also called complex systems theory, complexity science, study of complex systems, sciences of complexity, non-equilibrium physics, and historical physics....
  • Integrative learning
    Integrative learning

    Integrative Learning is a Learning theory describing a movement toward integrated lessons helping students make connections across curricula. This higher education concept is distinct from the elementary and high school "integrated curriculum" movement....
  • Second-order cybernetics
    Second-order cybernetics

    Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, investigates the construction of models of cybernetic systems. It investigates cybernetics with awareness that the investigators are part of the system, and of the importance of Self-reference, self-organizing, the subject-object problem, etc....


Further reading

  • 1949. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Sixth Conference. New York : Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
  • 1950. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Seventh Conference. Edited by Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead and Hans Lukas Teuber. New York : Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
  • 1952. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Eighth Conference. Edited by Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead and Hans Lukas Teuber. New York : Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
  • 1953. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Ninth Conference. Edited by Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead and Hans Lukas Teuber. New York : Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
  • 1955. Cybernetics: Transactions of the Tenth Conference. Edited by Heinz von Foerster, Margaret Mead and Hans Lukas Teuber. New York : Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.
  • 2003. Cybernetics - Kybernetik. The Macy-Conferences 1946-1953. Edited by Claus Pias. Zürich/Berlin : diaphanes.


External links