Acknowledgements

My thanks are due first to all those who were willing to grant me hours of their time, often for several days, in the most diverse places of the world, for the conversations that are reproduced in this book. They generously gave their time to a person who was usually unknown to them and who could present no particular academic decorations to sanction his undertaking; and they carefully authorised the resulting interviews. (Possible misinterpretations, which may have sneaked in through section titles and brief characterisations in the biographical sketches, are to be charged entirely to my account.) I have to thank Julia Raabe for the competent comments she offered on the first transcriptions of the conversations: her fearless application of red ink improved the manuscript considerably. I dedicate the book to the dialogist, teacher, and friend, Heinz von Foerster. Without his encouragement and support, this book would never have materialised.