Beer is one of eight children of the eminent cybernetician, Stafford Beer. Iberall also learned physiology from his mentor, neurophysiologist and cybernetician Warren S. McCulloch. Nicolas was the son of William Grey Walter, an American-born British neurophysiologist, cybernetician and robotician. According to the cybernetician the purpose of a system is what it does. According to the cybernetician, the purpose of a system is what it does. Heinz von Foerster called him a genius, "Mr. Cybernetics", the "cybernetician's cybernetician". Today "cybernetician" is preferred by members of the American Society for Cybernetics. A cyberneticist or a cybernetician is a person who practices cybernetics. The cybernetician William Ross Ashby formulated the original principle of self-organization in 1947. The cybernetician Heinz von Foerster formulated the principle of "order from noise" in 1960. The cybernetician interprets alien intentions as hostile and wants to destroy the "Orion Loop". USC also employed the cybernetician Stafford Beer to run a simulation of a "cybernetic factory".