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12, September 28, 1981 Newsletter of the / American Society for Cybernetics I Roger Conant. Editor 11\, ~ 1108 SEO. UICC Box 4348 Chicago. IL 60680 312+996-2308 Number 12, September 28, 1981 The address of the ASC is: 2131 G St. N.w., Washington DC 20052 OBSERVATIONS ON 5TH INT. CONGRESS OF CYBERNETICS AND SYSTEMS, MEXICO CITY National Plannin~ AUGUST 17-22, 1981 by Charles Fink National Social System The World Organization of General Systems and Cybernetics moved its triennial world congress to Mexico City this year in an National Analysis IC-~ effort to transfer systems and cybernetics knowledge to developing countries, Mexico in particular. Scientists from 26 coun­ In discussion it was brought out that lit­ tries, mainly European and North and Cen­ tle else other than impasse might have tral American, presented papers and con­ been expected from having a national plan­ ducted group sessions trying to address ning effort superimposed from outside on a the conditions and problems of developing self-regulating system. countries. There was always a high per­ centage of Mexican scientists and adminis­ Among the social scientists and adminis­ trators among the conferees, who appeared trators there seemed to be an undercurrent to total at least 300 persons. of skepticism about the usefulness of social planning models based on quantita­ The social systems section generated more tive methodology. In one panel discussion than average interest, judging from the even the place of predictive modeling attendance at its sessions, and this re­ within the world of systems was questioned port will focus mainly on this part of the as something beyond the classic notion of congress. The other sections ranged modeling bodies regulating themselves across the expected wide spectrum of sys­ mainly here and now and with only modest tems and cybernetics concerns, with gen­ feedforward. The largest amount of social erally high quality, empirically based modeling time was spent on a qualitative papers. Unfortunately, a high percentage methodology presented by a German scien­ of authors did not appear to present their tist. ~ith this technique a first draft material in person. mode l was turned over to Mexican scien- (Cont. on page 2) A leader in national planning for an Eastern Bloc nation surprised the social systems section by acknowledging nothing but failure in 20 years of trying to apply operations research methodology to social planning for his country. He drew this BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE WHITE PAGES OF diagram in overview of ~hat they had tried to do: THIS NEHSLETTER FOR YOUR COPY OF THE OCTOBER CONFERENCE PROGRAM ! -2."- Cont. frorn page 1 -- 41 tists present for further developrnent as examined. Both the content of the da\ they see fit. A model and empirical para­ sought and the process by ~hich data are digm for political bodies as "nested sys­ collected must be reconsidered in light of tems" also received spirited attention . this new goal. The focus will be on new Still, the problems of developing coun­ approaches already being implemented with tries were left largely unresolved, in particular emphasis on those groups with sum . the greatest degree of interaction ~ith the health care syste~ such as children, Among the authors there were several names the aging, and those with long term disa­ and faces new to, or not before recognized bilities. in, the systems movement. Proceedings of the congress are being prepared by the lead host for the congress . Questions about the proceedings, THE ASC FORUH may be addressed in English or Spanish to: Asociacion Mexicana de Sistemas y Ciber­ by Roger Conant netica; Antonio Sola No. 43; Colonia Condesa; Mexico 11, D.F.; Mexico . At the conference in Haine this summer there was considerable discussion about the finances of the ASC (in a nutshell, last year we took in $5000 and spent AAAS SYHPOSIU~1: COm1UNICATION \viTH PATIENTS $6000, have assets of $4000 and liabili­ ties about $7000, and the chief financial strain on the Society is the Forum which The AAAS meeting in Washington in January curre ntly absorbs almost all of our in­ will include a symposium led by ASC member come. The Newsletter costs nothing.) This ~1ark Ozer, entitled "Communication with rapidly led to a discussion of the Forum Patients Leading to Health Enhancement." and how it might be modified so as to max­ A synopsis of the symposium follows: imize the benefits we get from it while minimizing the costs. A number of innova­ The recent report of the Surgeon General tive, even radical suggestions came up has focussed on health enhancement as a there. Stu Umpleby has appointed Vadim major goal of the health care system for Drozin - the editor of the Forum, Jon Cun­ the remainder of the century. Coincident nyngham - a very entertairring and creative with this effort has been an increasing economist, and me as a committee to work concern about the effectiveness of more on the issue. We will hold an open meet­ traditional modes of delivery of health ing at the ASC conference to discuss the care and awareness of the limits to the matter. Piease come, or if you are unable resources available. Existing concepts to attend please write down your sugges ­ for health enhancement have focussed on tions and send them to one of us. changes in diet, exercise and other as­ pects of living on the part of patients. This symposium will deal with the more basic aspects of the interaction of the professional and patient. The charac­ teristics of a health care system organ­ ASC BOOKS NOW READY ized for health enhancement will be ex­ plored that ~ould lead to resource development increased capability cf Good news! The Ashby and Von Foerster patients to be resources in their own books have been completed and a few health care. What are the characteristics will be on display at the October con­ of the information collection procedures ference. Mechanisms of Intelligence con­ in use between patients and professionals? tains papers written by Ross Ashby, and What are the characteristics of the plan­ Observing Systems is a collection of ning and decision-making procedures? Ho~ papers by Heinz Von Foerster. To order can these basic technique~ be modified so copies, write to Intersystems Publica­ as to bring about an increase in resources tions, P.O. Box 624, Seaside , CA 93955. on the part of patients? The quality of the present modes of interaction will be ~ -3- CYBERNETICS IN THE SOVIET UNION PROGRAMHING AND COMPUTER THEORY Computer theory. Mathematical que­ stions in the construction of compu­ ters. Theory and methods of program­ Since 1964 a journal called Cybernetics ming languages. Automatie programming. Abstracts has been published monthly by Programs and algorithms for solving Scie ntific Information Consultants Ltd., various problems on computers. 661 Finchley Road, London NW2 2HN Eng­ l a nd. It consists of the English trans­ MA THE}~TICAL MODELLING OF THOUGHT PRü• lation of Referativnyy zhurnal KIBERNE­ CESSES TIKA. The titles of all the papers in General teaching theory. Programmed the Russian original, regardless of instruction. Pattern recognition by country origi~are translated with the means of computer and other devices. abstracts translated in full for articles Algorithmization of the creative acti­ originally published in a ny language vity of Man. Mathematical description other than English, French, or German. and modelling of neuron networks and The articles are always arranged accord­ the brain. Behavioural games and pro­ ing to the same outline. This outline, blems, given below, suggests how cybernetics is thought of in the Soviet Union. HATHEMATICAL LINGUISTICS Syntactic study of sign systems. In­ PART I. THEORETICAL CYBERNETICS terpretation of sign systems by content. Logic-algebra and set-theoretical mo­ THEORY OF LOGICAL SYSTEMS dels of languages and linguistic struc­ Modelling of logical systems. Coding tures. Other language models. Langua­ theory. Automata. Network theory. ge semantics. Artificial languages. Functional systems. Reliability Theo­ Machine translation. Programming lan­ ry. Mathematical logic. Conversion guages used in machine translation. rules in various systems. PART II. ENGINEERING CYBERNETICS INFORHATION THEORY Entropy. Information theory. Asymp­ GENERAL TOPICS totic theorems of optimal coding. Organisation of scientific research in Calculation of information-theoretical cybernetics. Relations between re­ characteristics of real channels and s earch and production. Textbooks. Re­ messages. Methods of sequential en­ ference books. Bibliographies. coding and decoding. Algebraic theory of error-correcting codes. Methods of THEORY OF AUTOHATIC CONTROL AND SERVO­ coding in continuous channels. SYSTEMS Linear deterministic systems. Nonli­ OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND HATHEHATICAL n e ar systems. Statistical dynamics of ECONOMICS a utomatic control and servosystems. Utility theory. Decision theory. The­ Ex perimental methods for studying the ory of games. Optimal programming. characteristics of plant, regulation Linear programming and applications. and control systems. Adjustment me­ Quadratic programming. Convex program­ thods for automatic control and servo­ ming. Concave programming. Dynamic s ystems. programming. Theory of mathematic­ economic models. Equilibrium models. THEORY OF CYBERNETIC (DETERHINISTIC AND Simulation of various economic aspects. STATISTICAL) CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR TECH­ Queuing theory. Inventory control the­ NICAL PROCESSES ory. Scheduling theory. Applications Optimal systems. Extremal systems. of operations research. PERT.
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