CYBERNETICS FORUM A PUBLICATION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS

SUMMER 1975 VOLUME VII NUMBER 2

IN THJS ISSUE

Editorial: Retrospect and Prospect Milton S. Katz

Articles: Same Problemsofa Social Cybernetics Richard Herbert Howe 3

Complexology: The Science of Negentropy as a Synthesis of General Systems Theory and Cybernetics V. G. Drozin 7

Plato's and Amperes Use of Kubernetes Harold K. Hughes 14

The Cybernetic Systems Program at Edward M. Duke San jose State University and Norman 0. Gunderson 16

Probe-On VisuaiSelf Abuse A. S. lberall 20

Book Review The E!ephant in the Soap Bubble Christopher R. Longyear 24

Features: From the Desk of the ?resident ...... 2 Letters to the Editor ...... 28 Conference Calendar ...... 29 About the Authors ...... 30

CODEN-ASCFC BOARD OF EDITORS Editor Milton S. Katz 7500 Park Gien Court Reston, VA 22090

Associate Editors

Charles I. Bartfeld Roland Fischer Frederick Kile Christopher Longyear Schoo/ of Business Admini­ Mary!and Psychiatrie Research Aid Association for Lutherans Book Review Editor stration, A merican University Center Appleton, Wl 54971 Department of Eng!ish Box 3235 Mass. & Nebraska A ves. N. W. University of Washington Washington, DC 20076 Baltimore, MD 21228 Felix F. Kopstein Seattle, WA 98195 N. A. Coulter, J r. 1913 Walnut Street Mark N. Ozer Department of Surgery Gertrude Herrmann Philadelphia, PA 79103 The George Washinqton Curriculum in Biomedical Conference Ca/endar Editor University Schoo/ of Medicine Engineering 7 73 7 University Boulevard West, and Health Seiences University of North Carolina #2722 J ulius Korein 3000 Connecticut Avenue N. W. Schoo/ of Medicine EEG Laboratory, Bellevue Si/ver Spring, MD 20902 Washington, DC 20008 Chape/ Hili, NC 27574 Hospital Dept. of Neurology, New Doreen Ray Steg V. G. Drozin Harold K. Hughes York University Medica/ Department of Human Foreign Correspondents Center The State University College Behavior & Deve/opment, Department of Physics 550 Fifth Avenue Potsdam, NY 73767 Drexe/ University Buckne/1 University New York, NY 10016 Philadelphia, PA 19104 Lewisburg, PA 7 7837 Akira lshikawa Paul Studer Charles H. Dym Graduate School of Business Robert M. Landau School of Library and Infor­ Dym, Frank & Company Administration, New York SIA Science Information mation Science, State Uni­ 7 8 7 5 Connecticut Avenue, University Association versity College of A rts and N.W. 700 Trinity P!ace 3574 P!yers Mi// Road Science Washington, DC 20009 New York, NY 10006 Kensington, MD 20795 Geneseo, NY 14454

AStS Liaison Managing Editor Laurence B. Heilprin Jack Lass University of Maryland Aspen Systems Corp. 4800 Berwyn Hause Road 11600 NebelStreet College Park, MD 20740 Rockville, MD 20852 OFFICERS - 1974

Roy Herrmann, President Kenneth A. Morris, Vice President (Awards} Gary D. Bearden, Vice President (Administrative} Herbert W. Robinson, Vice President (Publications} Bonnie W. Dunning, Vice President (Educational} Frank S. Speck, Treasurer Felix F. Kopstein, Vice President (Technical} Carlis A. Taylor, Secretary DIRECTORS - 1974

Carl Hammer, Chairman of the Board William E. Hanna, J r. Mark N. Ozer Roy Herrmann, President Daniel Howland Louise B. Speck Charles H. Dym Douglas E. Knight Murray Turoff Eleanor L. lson Franklin Kumpati S. Narendra Heinz Von Foerster

Corporate Member Advanced Computer Techniques Corp. 237 Madison Avenue New Y ork, NY 10022

Annual du es of the American Society for Cybernetics are -$20.00 ($5.00 for students) of which $5.00 ($3.00 for students) is in payment of the regu lar ann ual subscription price to the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM. Special non-member subscrip­ tions to theASC CYBERNETICS FORUMare $13.00 per year ($15.00 to members of ASIS) domestic, and $25.00 per year foreign, postpaid in the U.S. Single copies may be purchased at $5.00 each. Copyright © 1975 American Society for Cybernetics.

The ASC CYBERNET/CS FORUM is published quarterly by t he Ameri can Society for Information Science for the American Society for Cybernetics. Editorial Offices: ASC, Suite 911, 1025 Connecticut Avenue, Wash ington , DC 20036. Production offices: AStS, Su ite 210, 1155 16th Street, N .W., Wash ington, DC 20036. Editorial Retrospect and Prospect

As entropy increases, the universe, and all closed departments have emerged, as if of their own accord. systems in the universe, tend naturally to deterio­ Von Foerster and Howe at the University of Illinois, rate and lose their distinctiveness, to move from the Arbib at the University of Massachusetts, and Duke least to the most probable state, from a state of organization and differentiation in which distinc­ and Gundersou (see p. 16) at San Jose State University tions and forms exist, to a state of chaos and have spanned the continent with the beginning of an sameness... . But while the universe as a whole, if informative series about the university wellsprings of indeed there is a whole universe, tends to run down, Cybernetics. Richard Howe (see p. 3) has volunteered there are local enclaves whose direction seems to supply a series, beginning in the next issue, on the opposed to that of the universe at !arge and in which there is a limited and temporary tendency for philosophical origins, or precursors, of Cybernetics. organization to increase. Life finds its home in some Warren McCulloch's autobiographical tour-de-force in of these enclaves. It is with this point of view at its last summer's issue cannot be equalled regularly, if core that the new science of Cybernetics began its ever, regrettably, bu t we are looking f or reminiscences development. which will also illuminate important people in Cyber­ Norbert Wiener netics. The Human Use of Human Beings The Probe department was initiated to invite and New York: Avon Books, 1967. accommodate articles that are more speculative, more polemical, less rigorous and more unconventional than usual. So far its companion department, Reverbera­ Until last summer, we were a newsletter for the tions, has been one result which is congruent with the Society. This is the first issue of the second year in functions of a forum. our new format -a sort of milestone. In appearance, Roland Fischer's whimsical graphic illustration of we've dressed ourselves up with a distinctive color for his book review in the Autumn issue triggered plans each of our four seasonal issues, and changed our name for including more artwork beginning later this year, to signify our ambition to be a veritable forum of and several proposals are under consideration for Cybernetics. Our evolution, however, goes beyond assembling topical issues which will gather comple­ slicker printing and publishing. We are moving to mentary or combative points of view on a specific bridge a gap in the world's Cybernetics Iiterature subject area. between unified concepts of communication and con­ These are some of the things which have happened trol and the divisive jargons, contents and methods or soon will happen. Now comes the bite! Readers which characterize and isolate the constituent disci­ have, of course, a number of options in reacting to a plines. publication such as the ASC Cybernetics Forum. We We do not know how well we can help make shall Iist here some of the more obvious options and physiologists comprehensible to economists, or com­ pose for you, valued reader, the problern of divining puter scientists coherent to sociologists, or psycholo­ which option we urge you to adopt: gists fathomable to engineers. We have simply adopted • Lay the issues aside as you receive them, onto the tactic of asking each of these and all the others to the growing pile of publications to which you think and write for our publication in a way which wonder why you still subscribe. would give to anyone a sense of what Cybernetics • Read, enjoy and file or discard. comprises - the ideas, the work, the people, the dif­ • Pass on to colleagues and urge them and your fidence, the optimism and the skepticism which differ­ ~ library to subscribe ( or, to join the Society and entiate Cybernetics from any other scientific point of receive the ASC Cybernetics Forum for free). view, and which give it a unique flavor and unifying • Write to us about your reaction -bad or good­ capacity. and Iet us know how we're doing. (There's vanity This is a good time to Iook backward -as well as in publications, too.) forward- to see how we may expect to succeed in our • Contribute articles yourself. great ambition. During this first year, our practice and • Solicit contributions for us from people or insti­ planning have fleshed out a format to which readers tutions we should be hearing from. can now react. In addition to articles on an ever-expanding range of In a word, are we getting warm? Are you coming with topics, reviews of germane publications, and notes on us? the Society and Cybernetics in general, several inchoate -Milton Katz

ASC CYBERNETJCS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 From the Desk of the President

The election of new officers and directors will provide the badly needed oppor­ tunity to review once more the role the American Society for Cybernetics should be playing within its community-i.e., professional organizations involved in the improve­ ment of management sciences and practices, engineering, behavioral sciences and other disciplines. During the last few years we have made every effort to strengthen the decision-making process as it has evolved in the framework of cybernetics, the inter­ disciplinary technique which considers each element in a complex process. Much has been done not only in the area of hardware, but also in those disciplines which are affected by social, political or technological developments. We, on our part, have come a long way toward achieving the goals this society has had ever since its inception. We have intensified our communication network within our own organization and with our friends outside of the Society. One of the accomplishments of recent date was the improvement of our quarterly publication, the ASC Cybernetics Forum. In this connection it should be mentioned once more that we have become affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and have thereby established a relationship of great value to us as an organization as well as to our members individually. The next step will be to provide the members of the Society with a wholly owned and administered Journal, a publication which is now in preparation. I have been president for the past three-and-one-half years. It has been a demanding assignment but fortunately I have had the very active help of my wife, the "other" Doctor Herrmann, without which the amount of work to be accomplished could never have been achieved. In a recent editorial the small group running the Society was called the "Club of Washington" to indicate the exclusiveness of this "ruling" body. This may be a compliment, but it is my hope that all our members will pitch in to take the best possible advantage of the present trends to promote cybernetics. The foremost task facing all of us in the immediate future is to be aware of our responsibilities and obligations as members of the American Society for Cybernetics. My sincere thanks for your cooperation, and good wishes for a delightful summer to all of you. -Roy Herrmann

2 ASC CYBERNETJCS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 Some Problems of a Social Cybernetics

Richard Herbert Howe The Biological Computer Labaratory Department of Electrical Engineering The University of fllinois Urbana, IL 61801

Cybernetics: The Promise of Understanding Problems with People

Since its inception through the minds and pens of But there are problems, even for cybernetics. men such as Norbert Wiener, lohn von Neumann, and Although society seems to be some such sort of W. Ross Ashby, the discipline of cybernetics has held mechanism, and considering it as such has produced out the promise of a theory of complex organization much valuable insight into its workings, it is nonethe­ sufficiently powerful to cope with the most complex less an unusual sort of mechanism. A social system is and powerful of all organizations: society. A theory of constituted by (and consists of) people, and we make information flows within a system, a theory of the difficulties for any kind of theory about us. The first self-organization of systems, a theory of their equi­ and biggest difficulty is that when we get wind of a libria, their homeostasis, a theory that recognizes and theory about us-whether watered down and distorted, seeks to account for properties of a system which arise or even in its proper form-we respond to it, whether solely at the system level itself- what is such a theory, in accord with it or in opposition to it, and thus we even in its most general and abstract and formal repre­ change the "object" of the theory itself. There is an sentation, if not a social theory? inescapably self-referential and thus paradoxical aspect Economics seems to be a natural starting point for of any theory of society as a whole, for the theory is any implicitly or explicitly cybernetical theory of constructed within the very object that it is to society, because of the concreteness (and measura­ describe, and its descriptions change that object­ bility!) of economic phenomena, because of our sense society -even as they are made. that economic organization is the driving mechanism of The second difficulty for social theories, again society, and because of the very problematic nature posed by the circumstance that society is constituted for all of us, of the system level properties of eco­ by people, is that we do not just "respond." We have nomic organization. Business cycles, busts and booms, minds and wills; we act and we do so on the basis of recessions, and the like, affect us all directly in our our understanding (misunderstanding is a form of everyday lives, yet it is apparent that these are system understanding) of ourselves and our situation. Cogni­ level phenomena. It is not surprising that many zance of the first difficulty has led men like Karl attempts to construct a systematic theory of society Popper to assert that a theory of society as a whole is display markedly cybernetical traits, even when those a logical impossibility; cognizance of the second dif­ attempts antedate the emergence of the discipline of ficulty has led to the farnaus split between the cybernetics by a century or more. Fran<;ois Quesnay's Naturwissenschaften (the natural sciences) and the pioneering Tableau economique, Karl Marx' attempts a Geisteswissenschaften (the human sciences). This dis­ century later to lay bare the mechanisms of society as tinction arose in the development of German scholar­ a whole in Kapital, and, in our own century, John ship in the nineteenth century, but the difficulty to Maynard Keynes' General Theory are visible Iandmarks which it was addressed and the controversy which it of the prehistory of cybernetics. All of these men were raised are still in full force within the social sciences in agreement in considering the importan t social­ today. Philosophically, the impetus for this distinction economic phenomena affecting us most directly as had been given by Kant. arising through the organization and functioning of the social system as a whole, not readily (if at all) reduc­ The Kantian Solution ible to properties of any of the components or sub­ systems of that whole. Cybernetics, of course, is the Kant's solution to the dilemma posed by the mutu­ general theory of just such systems. ally exclusive alternatives of dogmatism and scepticism

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 3 (Leibniz and Wolff on the one hand, Hume on the be realized, is often to be found in the sciences as well other) was to create a vantage point from which each as in the humanities. In their introductory remarks to of these, in its place, could be transformed from doc­ their Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour, John trine into method. His critiques of reason determine von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern touch upon the limits of each of its aspects. What lies within these these problems indirectly in a modest but powerful limits is accessible to reason and subject to its control; way. There they say that the "importance of the social what lies beyond them can be conceived of only as phenomena, the wealth and multiplicity of their mani­ autonomous, as "noumenal." Kant solves his dilemma festations, and the complexity of their structure, are at by locating the mind itself in the realm of autonomy, least equal to those of physics. lt is therefore to be as a noumenon. He secures a lawful order for the expected-or feared-that mathematical discoveries of a phenomenal world through the structure of the mind's stature comparable to that of calculus will be needed perception of it; at the same time he gives the basis for in order to produce decisive success in this field. [ ... ] ethics through the very autonomy (and thus responsi­ A fortiori it is unlikely that a mere repetition of the bility) of the mind. tricks which served us so well in physics will do for Causality is to be valid a priori for the phenomenal the social phenomena too." This sober caveat poses a world because it is a structural component of our sober question for any social cybernetics: is cyber­ perception of that world; ethics is to have its a priori netics a theoretical advance comparable to the one of foundation in the circumstance that we ourselves calculus in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth belong not to that causally ordered phenomenal world centuries? but rather to the noumenal world, concerning which no such determinism can be supposed. In a strict separation of a phenomenal from a noumenal world, Yes and No Kant solves the problematics of induction and deduc­ tion and of freedom and determinism in one stroke. Without apologizing for the idleness of such ques­ This rests upon his attempt to replace transeendental tions, I would like simply to give an answer: yes and concepts such as truth with regulative principles for no. By "no" I mean "not yet" and by "yes" I mean inquiry and conduct. A regulative principle is an "maybe." For cybernetics is itself going through a injunction to act "as if." For example, in empirical change, an advance in the direction of what Margaret research to proceed as if, beyond every limit reached Mead has called a "second cybernetics." This second by inquiry, there was still more to be discovered. Or, cybernetics will attempt to cope with the problems of in the realm of ethics, to act only as if there were a Kant's "second world," the problems and phenomena universally applicable rule of conduct with which the of autonomy, freedom, ethics and responsibility. The action could accord. Through such regulative principles "first" cybernetics can study and help to bring about a the gulf between the phenomenal world and the nou­ rational management of society; the second cybernetics menal world is overcome through praxis. Where the must face the question of whether such a rational gulf cannot be bridged a disciplined use of dogmatic management is in fact a solution to social problems, arguments is allowed. Transcendence is thus tamed whether it is in fact a realization of history's dream of methodologically, but only on a basis that is itself freedom. This brings cybernetics onto the territory transcendental: the transcendentally autonomous once shared (and disputed) by philosophy, religion, human subject. political theory and social activism. Cyberneticists must One could say that the success of the natural proceed cautiously with regard to that, but we must sciences since Kant has rested on their precise develop­ not be afraid of it either. ment of the methodological notion of his regulative The concept of autonomy is a concept of closure. principles, while the difficulty for the sciences of An autonomaus system is a closed system. A closed mind, the "humanities," has been not only that a clear system is a system that can be described (and under­ formulation of what is meant by "autonomy" is hard stood!) only on the Supposition that its organization, to come by in a non-dogmatic way, but also that we its logic are such that "it" has interactions only with feel that autonomy is, even so, not something to be itself, and none with "us." Just that is what is meant tamed but rather something to be encouraged where it by "autonomy". But then, what is such an "it," and exists and established where it does not. For autonomy what is such an "us"? Explicating what is meant by is the fancy name for what we call freedom. "autonomy" is a problern above all for epistemology. Epistemology asks the question "how do we know" in order to answer the question "what do we (or can we) Can Cybernetics Do the Job? know." Lurking behind these two questions..are further problems. What is "what"? Who is "who"? What is Despite all the talk about "the two cultures," cogni­ "who"? Who is "what"? zance of the latter kinds of problems, the problems This is no joke. To try to describe an autonomous­ posed by society as the realm in which freedom is to a closed-system is to try to describe something with

4 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 which we do have interactions as if we and it did not of an infinite number of infinitely small clocks. In the have such interactions. And we, too, are, or would like beginning, God wound up and set the clock of the to be, autonomous. This means that we would like to world, and since God's time is the best of all times, be able to describe ourselves, with whom we undeni­ the clocks continue to run in perfect synchronization, ably have many interactions, as if we did not have any which Leibniz calls the "preestablished harmony." This such interactions. And such impossible or paradoxical raises some problems with respect to the existence of descriptions must be made if we are to have a social evil. But no matter. Shorn of its metaphysical trap­ cybernetics that can study the phenomena of auton­ pings, Leibniz' idea of the monads underlies every omy and can be applied to further the development of modern conception of "system." When and if the autonomy, that is, freedom. I assert that when we can transeendental time-keeper of the world is finally dead, make such descriptions with full formal rigor, and only then the monads will become truly autonomous. That then, we will have an advance comparable to the one is the problern of a second cybernetics, a social cyber­ of calculus, and just thereby the foundation for a real netics. social cybernetics. With this model, Leibniz sought to explain the mechanistic, the quantitative structure of the world. But he also sought to account for the qualitative differences among the world's phenomena. This he did The Mechanistic Model by introducing the idea of "clarity" into his model. Some monads reflect the constellation of the others To begin a sketch of what is involved here, let us more clearly than others. God is of course the perfect look at another precursor. Leibniz was the first to monad, the one with perfect clarity. The soul of man propose a mechanistic conceptual model for expressing is much less clear, but can become more clear by the interrelatedness of all aspects of a system. At the striving to be closer to God. Animals are even less same time, and in the same model, he dealt with the clear, and inanimate nature is the most obscure of all. problern of autonomy. The components of his mech­ lf we leave aside perfection, we can arrive, through the anistic model were to be autonomaus entities. I am interplay of the idea of the monads and the idea of not thinking of his universal calculators, his automata, their differing clarities, at a division of the concept of but rather of his calculus. The infinitesimals as con­ autonomy into three kinds of autonomy. ceived by Leibniz were neither numbers nor not numbers. They escaped all attempts to describe them as numbers. This led Bishop Berkeley to describe them Three Kinds of Autonomy as "the ghosts of departed quantities." Leibniz re­ sponded to this difficulty not by resolving it but by The three kinds of autonomy which result from using it as the basis for his mechanistic conceptual Leibniz' Monadology (with a little background pro­ model of the world, which, according to him, is com­ vided by Kant) are these: 1) the autonomy of nature; posed of an infinite number of infinitely small objects, 2) the autonomy of biological organization; 3) the akin to the infinitesimals, and which he called autonomy of human subjectivity. This is not to "monads." establish a new metaphysics. Nature, which we assume Taken one by one, each monad is exactly like every to be autonomaus (without this assumption there other monad. Monads have neither properties nor would be no science, but that is another story) by qualities. lf they did, they would differ, but they do leaving God out of the picture, can give rise to biolog­ not. As Russell has shown, this contradicts Leibniz' ical systems, which have their own autonomy and postulate of the "identity of indiscernibles." But no integrity vis-d-vis their (natural) environment, and such matter. The greatness of a philosophical system lies not biological systems can, in their development and their in its freedom from contradiction but rather in the interactions, give rise to a further kind of autonomy, wealth of problems which it articulates. Having no the autonomy of human subjectivity. The three kinds properties or qualities, the monads neither come into of autonomy have interactions with and through one existence, nor change, nor pass out of existence. They another, and yet just thereby retain or maintain or enter into no relationships with one another. What even develop their autonomy. The matrix in which then do the monads do? They "reflect" one another. these autonomies interact is society, and the organi­ In each monad is reflected the "constellation" formed zation of society is the pattern of and for their inter­ by all of the others. Each monad thus embodies the actions. entire universe as "seen" from its "point of view." Although I cannot within this space and at this Thus, any "change" in the "relationships" between any time develop the concept of autonomy much further, I of the monads results in a "change" in each of them as would like to make a definition of autonomy in terms they reflect one another. more akin to those common to cybernetics than to For Leibniz, of course, these "changes" are fore­ philosophy. Autonomy is the unity of computation ordained by God: the universe is a big clock composed and construction. lf this were so, then the three

ASC CYBERNETJCS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 5 autonomies just discussed would have their differences sion by suggesting that the development of a social in the kinds of computation and the kinds of construc­ cybernetics converges with a formal sociology, not so tion of which they are to be such a unity. One might much in the formal description of extant concrete say that nature, biological systems, and human subjec­ social systems but rather in a study of the paradoxical, tivity each compute a different range, and construct and perhaps even Contradietory, matrix and pattern themselves (and the possibility of their further compu­ generated by the interaction of the three kinds of tation, and so on) within those differing ranges. This autonomy. This development of a social cybernetics leaves aside the problern of whether they have a may hinge in part on the development of logics and common domain, which is the problern of reduc­ calculi of antinomies or paradoxes, and in part on a tionism. Society, which can be seen as the interaction reexamination and further development of our con­ of these three autonomies, would be a construction in cepts of closed and open systems. Above all, however, the intersection of their ranges of computation, but it it will depend on the efforts and the risks taken by would not be a unity of computation and construc­ cyberneticists who are autonomous enough to take the tion. But just for this reason society can appear to us responsibility which the development of a social cyber­ to take on a phantom and even daemonic existence netics demands. The dieturn implicit in Kant's critiques independent of us, of our needs, our wants, our still holds: there can be no freedom without responsi­ desires. bility and no responsibility without freedom. I would like to close this brief and informal discus-

6 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 Complexology: The Science of Negentropy as a Synthesis of General Systems Theory and Cybernetics •

(This is the first part of a two part article}

V. G. Drozin Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 17837

Cybernetics and General Systems Theory What are the major weaknesses of both sciences? The control of a cybernetic system requires the knowl­ Within a few years after the Second World War two edge of its goal. Unfortunately, in most cases we are new sciences appeared: Cybernetics and General Sys­ dealing with a subsystem of a larger system so that its tems Theory (GST). The creator of the first was the goal can be established only by considering the inter­ American mathematician, Norbert Wiener (1), and of dependencies of the whole entity. A controller in the second-the Austrian biologist, Ludwig von Berta­ charge of a particular system has no mechanism to lanffy (2). The cyberneticists as weil as the general study the whole system to find its goals as weil as systems theorists acknowledged the overlapping of those of its parts. For example, a ship going to its both sciences and claimed that the other science is a destination is a cybernetically controlled system with part of their own. They have separate professional the captain as the controller. The goal towards which organizations and journals, although some are members the captain directs his ship-to deliver certain goods to of both organizations or participate in the meetings a particular place- was generated as part of a larger arranged by the other organization. plan, outside of his realm of information. The com­ The appearance of both sciences aroused great ex­ pany which runs the ship decided its cargo and destina­ pectations and some successes were scored in such tion after studying the larger system of which it is a fields as technology, biology, psychology and sociol­ part. The goals of the subsystems of a system fre­ ogy. However, there is a growing gap between the quently are the result of a compromise between Con­ expectations and the actual impact of both sciences on tradietory goals which may not coincide with those of our civilization. After more than a quarter of a century the whole system. If one would study the flow of the cyberneticists still cannot agree on what their goods which is conducted by particular economic sub­ science is about. Is it "the science of communication systems of the U.S.A., one might conclude that the and control in the animal and the machine" as sug­ goal of the country is to exhaust its own natural gested by Wiener? Is it the science which should deal resources and those of the rest of the world in the primarily with "exceedingly complex probabilistic shortest time possible. A similar study of the motion systems" as suggested by a British cyberneticist, Staf­ of pollutants across the boundary could persuade one ford Beer (3)? ls it the science concerned primarily to think that the goal of the U.S.A. is to share its with the problems of artificial intelligence as suggested pollution with the rest of the world. by a British cyberneticist, Frank H. George (4)? Or, is Apparently there is a need for a science which will it essentially an engineering science-advanced particu­ concern itself with problems encountered in complex larly by electrical engineers interested in treatment of systems. To such problems belong the study of the mathematical problems in such fields as computer pro­ direction of development of complex systems, their gramming, information theory and theory of automa­ goals, and the processes in the system which affect the tion- as the content of some cybernetic journals (5) fulfillment of the goals. Is General Systems Theory suggests? General Systems Theory also has a variety of such a science? Unfortunately, the answer is no. interpretations associated with the names of von Berta­ General Systems Theory is concerned primarily with lanffy, George J. Klir (6), Mihajlo D. Mesarovic (7) and the common properties of systems, while the establish­ others. However, all cyberneticists would probably ment of the goals of the complex social systems and agree that control is the "heart" of cybernetics, while their accomplishment require explicit detailed knowl­ most general systems theorists would probably consider edge of the system and of the processes in it. This the design of systems as being their primary task. makes it doubtful that such rigorous mathematical tools as differential equations and theory of sets *Exerpts from the manuscript of the book, Scientific ldeology­ commonly used in GST can be applied to complex a Path to Survival, ©v. G. Drozin. social problems. In addition GST does not deal with

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Nurober 2- Summer 1975 7 the development of social systems, without which it is member of the sociosphere he participates in many almost impossible to determine their goals. To deal interactions: as a family man, as a member of a com­ with a variety of systems one should be able to express munity, county, state, nation and world, as a member them in terms of a single unifying parameter; GST is of a professional group at his place of work, and of a unable to do so. professional society, as a member of a religious com­ The basic weakness of both sciences seems to stem munity, etc. As a member of the sociosphere he is the from the Iack of foundation. Indeed, Cybernetics is the creator of the technosphere, and the knowledge about science of control, but control as such is not the the five spheres. He carves his technological environ­ self-purpose of the system. One does not control ment-the technosphere-out of the geo- and bio­ simply for the purpose of exercising control. Instead spheres. Ultimately, he uses the geosphere as a reser­ one uses control to attain certain goals not determined voir for technological wastes. by Cybernetics. The same situation exists in GST. We define a technologü;al activity in a broad sense Ashby (8) considered it as an asset that the Society for as one resulting in the production of practically use­ General Systems Research and its Journal [ Of Behav­ able goods which cannot be found in the geosphere or ioral Sciences] "started from no particular scientific or biosphere in the form in which they are used. Corres­ professional discipline but were generated by the con­ ponding to this definition every interference with viction that there must be voices for informed genera­ nature, as in agricultural or medical activity, belongs to lism ...." It would seem that such an inductive period technology. Although the results of artistic activity in the history of a science which corresponds to accu­ also cannot be found in nature, by our definition they mulation of knowledge should be followed by a deduc­ do not represent consumable goods in a technological tive period in which the science becomes structured in sense. However, artistic tools such as piano, paints, the form of its laws, hypotheses and theories. This has paper. etc., are the results of technological activity. not yet happened in either Cybernetics or GST. The geo-, bio-, socio- and technospheres form our It can be seen that both sciences in their present global system; with the cosmosphere they form the forms do not represent a viable integrated science capa­ universal system. This is the most complex system in ble of dealing with the complexity of socio-technologi­ existence. cal problems. Especially disappointing was their perfor­ mance in the study of our most complex and most important system-the society. In the following discus­ Human Creativity and Negentropy sion a new science is described which I call Complex­ ology. This science, which is integrative by its very The fundamental property of man which qualita­ nature, incorporates Cybernetics used as a method and tively distinguishes him from any other living beings on some ideas of GST in a unified way and applies it to this planet is the creativity of his mind. Therefore, the socio-technological systems. most important science should be the science of human creativity. Creativity has numerous forms: an author writing a literary work, an engineer designing a The Most Complex System machine, a chess player selecting his next move, a student solving a problem, and a mechanic repairing a Invention of the computer, progress in automation, car are all instances of creative work. If they only construction and use of the first atomic bomb, and repeated identical work the element of creativity employment of rockets toward the end of World War would not be present to the same extent. Thus the use II were harbingers of a new epoch-the Epoch of of a person for performing repetitive work, such as Information. Homo sapiens was transformed from that on an assembly line, is a misuse of his creative Homo [aber of the technological epoch to Homo com­ potential. The creativity of a composer, an actor, a plexus artifex of the informational epoch. Man is now businessman or a statesman are other forms of this a builder of !arge complex technological systems basic human property. People differ in the degree and which, in turn, cause an immense increase in complex­ form of their creativity, there are no non-creative ity of social systems. people. The earth is a relatively small, but rather well­ All forms of creativity have one common feature­ equipped, planet rotating around its primary source of they result in a new product which was not in exis­ energy-the sun-one of the billions of stars of the tence before. Thus creativity can contribute to variety cosmosphere. Man occupies a central place on the in products. This allows us to estimate the creativity of planet. He is a part of the biosphere, which we define a given society by the variety it produces. As a mea­ as consisting of all living organisms spread over the sure of variety we can use the concept of negentropy earth; he uses the geosphere-land, water and air-as his or degree of order in a given system. Let us introduce habitat and the source of food, fuel and other re­ this concept by considering our system as being a sources. Man, further, is a member of the sociosphere­ jigsaw puzzle. If the puzzle were to consist of identical societies spread over the face of our planet. As a pieces its variety would be zero, since any piece could

8 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 be interchanged with every other piece without chang­ two stages in the production of negentropy and corre­ ing the puzzle. This puzzle would be considered a spondingly two kinds of negentropy. During the first system of zero negentropy. lf every piece is different, stage the structural negentropy of a system is created. then no two pieces can be interchanged and so the In the second stage this negentropy is used to conduct negentropy or degree of order of such a puzzle is a process which creates the desired product, the negen­ maximum. With two puzzles having the same variety tropy of which we will call the processed negentropy. the puzzle with a larger number of pieces is one of While the structural negentropy is created in a single higher negentropy. Since there are more pieces which strake and requires only repairs and replacement of cannot be interchanged the puzzle has a greater parts to maintain its level of order, the process of the variety. This puzzle, being more complex, would be second stage is a continuous or periodic one. The correspondingly more difficult to assemble. process transforms the negentropy of input products Thus, negentropy is a measure of complexity of a into that of the output which contains higher-or at system expressed in the number of its parts or subsys­ least different-negentropy. tems and in their variety. It should be noted, however, The creation of material with the same level of that the number of subsystems alone is not a sufficient processed negentropy can be conducted in systems of characterization of the complexity of a system. For various structural negentropy. The process of food pro­ example, a canceraus growth may consist of a great duction in the U.S. is conducted within a structure of number of cells but they are not differentiated, i.e., do individual farms and agricultural enterprises; in the not show variety, so that we cannot speak about the U.S.S.R. it takes place within a structure of collective structure and the complexity of structure of such a and state farms, while in less developed countfies food growth. A concept somewhat opposite to that of is produced by individual peasants usually without negentropy is called entropy. It expresses the degree of using complex farm machinery and artificial fertilizers. disorder of a system. It is one of the basic concepts of It is not difficult to realize that every conscious physics since it is used to express the direction of mental activity is directed, in general, to an increase or change of physical systems. maintenance of order or negentropy. Notahle excep­ The complexity of a system can also be expressed tions are criminal activity or wars-when one negen­ by the number of steps of a prescription or algorithm tropy is used to destroy another of higher quality. needed to assemble the whole from its parts. The Every decision made by a person, every plan or assembling of identical parts is considered as one step. activity directed toward its fulfillment are, in general, lt is not difficult to see that both measures of com­ associated with an increase of order, or negentropy, in plexity are compatible. lndeed, the greater the variety a structure or with a process leading to a greater order. of parts and their number, the larger is the negentropy Indeed, a decision is a choice of one line of action of the system, and the Ionger will be the algorithm among all available possibilities after weighing each required for its assembly. against the next. Let us consider several basic kinds of The other possible expressions of the complexity of negentropy present in the spheres comprising the a system are: global system. They all are different and cannot be I. By specifying all possible combinations of its compared with each other directly. inputs which give all possible values of the out­ One of the most important forms of geospherical puts; negentropy is that of energy. Different forms of energy 2. By specifying all possible interactions between have different negentropic content. Electrical energy the subsystems of the system- are they of the has the highest negentropy and can be almost com­ same kind and independent from each other, or pletely transformed into mechanical work. Chemical are they different and interdependent? energy has a lower negentropy, and the lowest in These expressions of complexity of a system are negentropic content is thermal energy. The process of reducible to the number of its non-interchangeable photosynthesis by plants transforms solar energy, states and can be linked to the negentropy content of which has a very high negentropy, into negentropy of the system. fossil fuel-coal, gas and oil. They represent the major source of energy in all processes directed toward the increase and maintenance of technological negentropy. Classification of Negentropy Especially important for the biosphere is the ecological negentropy of the geosphere expressed, for example, An automobile manufacturer needs to build a fac­ by the amount of carbon dioxide, dust and ozone in tory before he starts the process of assembling auto­ the atmosphere which provide the comfortable average mobiles. A school and personnel are needed before any temperature on our planet and which protect the bio­ organized educational process can be conducted. The sphere against excessive ultraviolet radiation. organization of a welfare agency should precede its The negentropy of biological systems has a struc­ operation in a community. tural component expressed in their morphology and These examples show that we should distinguish the processed component. Both are produced in the

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 9 processes directed toward maintenance or increase of tion, a biologist in the process of study discovers, the negentropy of the organism. This process is guided piece by piece, the previously hidden informa­ by an enormous amount of hereditary information tional negen tropy ab out organisms and their stored in every cell. In addition, every cell has a parts. Naturally, the negentropy of an organism, program instructing it about the part of this informa­ and of our knowledge about it, are not the same. tion which should be used in its work. A special kind They can be compared to the relationship be­ of biological negentropy, especially important to man, tween a model and the organism as an object of is the structural negentropy of the central nervous modelling. The processes and regularities in the system which allows him to process incoming informa­ cosmo-, geo-, bio-, and sociosphere are still tion and to use the stored negentropy. Information in mostly unknown, but the informational negen­ the form of audio-visual or other kinds of signals tropy about them is constantly increasing as a received by man through his sense organs is trans­ result of new discoveries. Informational negen­ formed into negentropy which is stored somewhere in tropy stored in the form of books can be pre­ the "memory cells" of his central nervous system in a served for generations without a substantial loss. still undetermined form. Since it is cumulative, even in the case of zero Learning can, then, be defined as the conscious population growth, mankind can always increase effort to receive, transform, store and apply the incom­ the informational negentropy about the world ing information. The viewers of a television program or system. the listeners to a radio broadcast are performing this 3. Negentropy of Art. This refers to the negentropy process. The period of time during which this negen­ of the nonconsumable objects created within the tropy is stored depends on the importance of its con­ sociosphere. Any original piece of art (e.g., a tent and the effort made to retain it. Remernhering is musical composition, a sculpture, a painting, a the transformation of this stored negentropy into cor­ literary work) contains a certain amount of responding information, while forgetting is the loss of negentropy. Indeed, a given musical composition negentropy by changing ordered "memory cells" into is created as a unique combination of sounds diserdered ones. from a practically infinite number of possible Social negentropy or the negentropy of social sys­ combinations. Its negentropy is in the form of tems has several forms: notes- a coded language- expressing this combina­ I. The organizational negentropy of government tion of sounds. Certainly, there are other criteria contains a structural part within which it for judging a particular piece of art or literature, operates and a processed part in the form of such as its aesthetic value, its ability to evoke legislation and its enforcement. The latter is de­ emotional responses of viewers and readers, and signed to regulate economic, political and other its originality of style or composition. The processes in a society. Thus, the purpose of uniqueness of a piece of art is the result of the government is the maintenance or the increase of creativity of an artist. First, an idea of a certain the negentropy of the society. The effect of the negentropy appears in his central nervous system law-making and law-executing activity of govern­ expressed in some orderly set of neuron nets. ment can be estimated by the change in values of Then the idea becomes embodied in a piece of properly selected social indicators expressing the art or a literary work. The idea and its accom­ change in the amount of the corresponding plishment are constantly influencing each other negen tropies. in the process of a creative work. A technical 2. In[ormational negentropy can be stored not only reproduction of a piece of art or a reprinting of in the central nervous system of man as was a literary work does not increase its negentropy. shown above-we will call it human informational However, received as information by millions of negentropy-it can be also stored in books, arti­ people, it increases negentropy of their central cles, reports, tapes, etc. Our ignorance about a nervous system. given phenomenon can be expressed as zero 4. Economic negentropy consists of the structural negentropy since it can be subject to several negentropy in the organization of corporations, possible explanations which can be interchanged banks, agricultural enterprises, as well as of the with each other. In the acquisition and recording processed negentropy created in these institu­ of more knowledge about the phenomenon we tions. As will be shown later, economic activity can narrow down its possible explanations thus represents one of the most important links be­ increasing the value of its negentropy. tween the sociosphere and the technosphere. The acquired knowledge about all five spheres 5. Technological negentropy of the technosphere stored in various negentropy forms represents the consists of the structural negentropy of every informational negentropy of mankind to date. system created by man and of the processed Just as an archeclogist in the process of excava­ negentropy resulting from the processes con­ tion recovers the negentropy of a past civiliza- ducted within this structure. It should be noted

10 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Vo1ume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 that almost any increase, or even the mainte­ In social systems, which are our most complex and nance of technological negentropy, requires fuel important systems, there are many agents acting on a which is non-recyclable material. As a rule the particular parameter. They can be divided into "pro­ informational negentropy and that of the arts moters" -the agents which tend to increase the value have a longer lifetime than the negentropy of of a parameter, and "suppressors" -the agents which technological systems. Indeed books and pictures act to decrease it. We will call the on-going process in usually last longer without repairs or reproduc­ a system within which the promoters of a given para­ tion than do buildings, highways, etc. The engi­ meter are strenger than the suppressors, a positive neering sciences serve as a necessary link for the feedback development with respect to this parameter. use of the corresponding informational negen­ In this case the increased values of the parameters may tropy of sciences to increase the technological contribute to a further increase. The population negentropy. Presently we do not know precisely growth of countries in which suppressors (in the form the functional dependence between the rate of of high mortality) are decreasing due to improved production of information negentropy and that medical aid and adequate food supply, while promoters of technological negentropy. Correlating data (as expressed by the birth rate) remain the same is an about the development of the technosphere, example of such development. sciences, engineering sciences, and economics The increase in the level of pollution due to acceler­ may help to establish this relationship. ated technological activity and population, the in­ The Scientific and the Cybernetic Method creased depletion rate of natural resources due to the same factors, as well as the nuclear weapons race The order or the negentropy of a system cannot between the major powers on our planet, are further increase in a spontaneous process. One cannot expect cases of dangerous positive feedback development the arbitrary application of paints to result in a por­ threatening our survival. We can call the development trait, or that a machirre can be created by the random of a system in which the action of the promoters and assembly of its parts. To create a certain amount of suppressors on a particular parameter are counter­ negentropy one must first have an idea or plan of what balanced a negative feedback development with respect one wants, and then organize the processes leading to to this parameter. The control of a system consists of its realization. This is accomplished by an application acting on both agents in such a way as to achieve the of the cybernetic method. However, to determine the desired value of the corresponding parameter. One can­ desired state of a system and the ways in which to not effectively control a complex system by using only achieve transformation to this state one must first promoters or suppressors. Indeed, one cannot control determine the possible states of the system. This is the speed of a car using the accelerator or brakes accomplished by the application of the scientific alone. method. The realization of the desired state of a system The scientist studying an unknown system analyzes from among a nurober of possible states means an its input-output relations, which express the inter­ increase of negentropy of the system. This requires dependencies between the parameters characterizing controls which suppress undesirable states and promote the system. Then he suggests a hypothesis or a model the desired one. Simply to preserve a system at its of the system explaining this relationship and attempts present level of negentropy requires maintenance of to verify the conclusions from the hypothesis. This the existing controls. Thus, the cybernetic method is process may lead to a theory explaining a wide range the rnethod of increasing or maintaining the negen­ of related phenomena. tropy of a system. A painter painting a picture, an The cybernetic method is applied by one who engineer building a factory, a business man conducting wishes to have a system in a particular state character­ his business, all are using the same cybernetic method, ized by the values of its parameters. These predeter­ although they employ different controls corresponding mined values depict the desired state of the system or to differences in the kind of negentropy they are goal. To reach a given goal the controlling segment of trying to create or maintain. In general, every purpose­ the system ( which can be either a device, a man or an ful activity requires an application of the cybernetic organization) receives, from the controlled system, method. feedback information about the actual values of its In order to control a process in a system one should parameters. A comparison is then made between this understand the system, its possible states, and the current state and the desired one. Depending on the agents influencing the values of the controlled para­ degree of discrepancy which may exist, a decision is meters. All of this information is obtained by the made about the way the system should be acted on to application of the scientific method which, therefore, achieve the desired values. The decision is carried out should precede the application of the cybernetic by the executive part of the system and the new values method. The scientist treats a system as though it were of the parameters are reported as feedback. The in a box with walls of varying transparency. The more process is repeated until the goal is fulfilled or revised. he studies the system, the more transparent the box

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Nurober 2-Summer 197 5 11 becomes. Correspondingly, the more a cyberneticist With the appearance of the first single cell the knows about a system the easier it is for him to process of evolution began. For three billion years control it. There are, however, systems whose outputs countless random experiments were running in the bio­ cannot be predicted from the given inputs. Such sys­ sphere with one of two outcomes: survival or extinc­ tems are called probabilistic. Social systems belong to tion of species. The outcome was determined by many this category. It is difficult to control these systems parameters associated with the changing environment since their changes through time are also probabilistic and with the changing offspring of the species. Now in nature. Only by the strict application of the cyber­ the interim result of this experimentation-the surviv­ netic method can such systems be efficiently con­ ing species-are before us. Their histories are encoded trolled. For this purpose they must learn from their in a genetic language which we do not yet fully under­ experience and anticipate disturbances. stand. From a single cell to differentiated cells forming It should be noted that while a scientist applies the lower organisms, to higher organisms, and thence to scientific method to study a system, he hirnself man, the evolutionary process has progressed along a employs the cybernetic method. When he sets a goal path leading to biological systems of increasing com­ such as the investigation of a certain phenomenon, he plexity. makes decisions about apparatus and techniques to be The increase in the complexity of organisms was used, about the kind of inputs to be introduced into accompanied by the development of a hierarchical the system and the way it should be done. Finally he structure for the controlling subsystems which are executes these decisions while looking for feedback in capable of handling the increased amount of informa­ the form of the outputs of the system. If the approach tion needed for proper functioning of such organisms. fails or if a disturbance is discovered, the scientist This development has culminated in the central makes another decision, such as to modify the nervaus system of man-the controlling subsystem of apparatus or to use a different experimental technique, his body. Eyes, ears and other sensors provide the and so on until the goal is achieved or the impossi­ central nervous system with feedback information bility of its realization is demonstrated. about the state of the organism and of the environ­ The sociosphere is the only part of the global sys­ ment which, together with the goals of the organism, tem which is capable of having a conscious goal. How­ serve as a basis for the decisions required to deal with ever since the global system and each of its parts are in the deviations of the man-environment system from the process of constant change we have to learn the the desired state. In the process of evolution from the direction of this change in order to find the goal of single cell to the human brain, the numerical com­ the sociosphere which must also be compatible with plexity has increased by about ten billion times. The the direction of development of the global system as a complexity of man's central nervous system makes it whole. highly improbable that there could be two people with identical genetic programs. The probability that they will be exposed to the same interactions with their The Law of Upward Development environment is even less likely. This shows that, theo­ retically, a society could be a system of maximum About three billion years ago the first living cell negentropy. Practically speaking, this is not the case appeared on our planet. This was a tremendous in­ due to the relative uniformity of educational and crease in complexity as compared to the atom, which societal influences exerted on people. is the basic subsystem of the geosphere. For example, The next step in the direction of increased com­ the single cell of the bacterium Escherichia coli con­ plexity has been the formation of communities above tains about 200 billion atoms. The first single cell was the family Ievel. Our records of this process go back the first cybernetically controlled system on the earth. about ten thousand years-when our planet was popu­ It was the first object to which the concepts of infor­ lated by approximately ten million people. At the mation, communication and control could be applied. beginning of the Christian era the population reached Indeed, the concept of cybernetic control cannot be about 350 million and doubled during the next 17 applied to natural phenomena such as the motion of a centuries. After this the doubling periods began to planet around the sun because there is no desired state shrink very rapidly. The second doubling required 15 0 differing from the actual one determined by Newton's years (1700-1850), the next only 90 years Law of Universal Gravitation. A different situation (1850-1940), while the current one will probably take exists in the case of a cell. Systems of such incredible only 40 years (1940-1980). The present rate of growth complexity require special controlling and executive of the world population indicates that by the end of subsystems and complex internal and external commu­ the century our planet may have close to seven billion nication channels. The latter are of immense impor­ inhabitan ts. tance as a route to the environment from which the Parallel to the growth of the sociosphere has been cell receives feedback information, nourishment, and the growth of its creation-the technosphere. Both into which it discharges its wastes. trends were accelerated after the first industrial revolu-

12 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 tion which brought about the mechanization of work allowed to participate in the decision-making process at processes, thus amplifying man's executive power while the level where all important policies are established. leaving him to control the machines. The second indus­ Technologists design a factory, build it, and supervise trial revolution made it possible to remove man as the the technological process needed for production of controller of machines and to replace him with data particular goods. They control these steps by making processing machines-computers capable of reliably all necessary professional decisions and executing them. handling more information, and at a higher rate, than However, the "captain" of the tt!chnological "ship" is could be done by man. the entrepreneur who must therefore carry the major Technological development has been a trend toward responsibility for the negative side of the technological greater complexity. Accelerated development of the activity. He initiates the whole enterprise, provides technosphere in this century has strongly affected the money for its operations, and takes the risk of losing geo- and biospheres. lndeed, technological development his investment. He gives orders to design, build and from simple tools to complex machines, from rifles to conduct a technological process within a factory. In so nuclear bombs, from steam engines to nuclear reactors, doing the entrepreneur organizes the creation of the from telegraph to communication satellite networks, negentropy of the structure-a factory-and of the from hand calculators to computers represent higher product of the process conducted in this structure. and high er Ievels of complexity. Unfortunately this lndeed, the engineers, clerical personnet and workers development has been accompanied by a significant scattered all over the country are now combined into a deterioration of the environment. During the last few group of higher negentropy. Building materials, centuries man has destroyed two-thirds of all forests machines and raw materials needed for a given process and hundreds of animal species. He uses the geosphere are brought together from various places to be trans­ as a reservoir for technological wastes by discharging formed into marketable goods of additional negen­ into it almost one hundred million tons of sulfur tropy. All of this requires money. We will call the dioxide, nearly half this amount of nitrogen oxides, capital invested in an enterprise cybernetic capital, and many other wastes every year. since it is a monetary expression of the controlling The greatest impact of the developing technosphere process which results in an increase in negentropy of in this century has been on its creators-the industri­ technological and, consequently, of social systems. This alized countries of the sociosphere. Life in these money is different from the money in the pockets of a societies, and the relations between societies, have consumer. While the cybernetic dollar serves as a con­ undergone fundamental changes due to the enormous trolling agent in creating systems of a higher degree of change in the means of warfare, production, communi­ organization, the consumer dollar serves only as a cer­ cation and transportation. The standard of living in tificate allowing its owner to exchange it for a certain industrialized societies has risen sharply and the rate of amount of negentropy in the form of food, goods and development of new knowledge has increased expo­ services, which he "consumes." There is another differ­ nentially. ence between these two types of capital. Cybernetic What part of society is organizing and conducting capital as an investment in a new enterprise brings the technological activity? Since every activity directed profit which can be reinvested again, so that the toward an increase of negentropy in a system is a capitalistic enterprise uses the positive feedback mecha­ cybernetic activity we can rephrase our question in this nism. Consumer money does not have this property. way: What part of the society represents the major Cybernetic capital can be formed in a society only controlling subsystem of the activity directed towards if its members do not consume everything they pro­ the creation and maintenance of the technospherical duce. Objectively, an entrepreneur satisfies the needs negentropy? What is the principal goal of this part of of a society by increasing the negentropy of the tech­ the society? nosphere and consequently of the sociosphere. How­ Before answering these questions, we need first to ever, his primary goal is to get as high a profit as clear up a rather common misunderstanding about the possible. The competition between entrepreneurs nature of technology and economy, as this is rooted in compels individual enterprises to be well-controlled the confusion between the engineering and economic systems with a high level of productivity. All capital­ aspects of technological activity. Technologists are fre­ istic enterprises together represent a gigantic network quently held responsible for causing pollution and of cybernetically controlled interdependent systems, depletion of natural resources. The accused defend each having its own goals and controlled by internal themselves by pointing out all the blessings that tech­ decision-making procedures. Markets, both national and nology has brought to people and by promising that international, are the major regulatory mechanisms the problems created by technology will be solved by where an individual entrepreneur finds at what price technology itself. The accusations are addressed to the (usually determined by supply and demand) he can sell wrong party and therefore the rebuttal is not valid. As his goods. a rule, engineers, managers and workers are hired by entrepreneurs to do their professional job and are not (Conc!uded next issue)

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 13 Plato's and Ampere's Use of Kubernetes

Harold K. Hughes State University of New York Potsdam, NY 13676 ,

I ntroduction Plato's Use of Kubernetes

Although Norbert Wiener's choice of the name cyber­ Plato makes frequent use of the word kubernetes. In netics for "the entire field of control and communica­ Gorgias (511 d), for example, he has Socrates say to tion theory, whether in the machirre or in the animal" Calliches, (1) was a fortunate one and possibly original with him, it was not the first or even the second use of this word for I will speak to you about a greater art than this essentially the same field of knowledge. To trace the (swimming), that is the pilot's art (kubernetes) which saves not only our souls but our bodies and our pos­ origins of cybernetics we must go back to Plato sessions from the gravest dangers. (427BCE? to 347BCE) or earlier times, and also make a stop in Francein the early part of the 19th century. In the Statesman (299 b) the Stranger says to young In the first edition of his Cybernetics dated 1948, and Socrates, in a spirit of unsocratic rigidity, repeated in the second edition of 1961 , Wiener claimed "the term cybernetics does not date further back than It will be a law agairrst independent research. lf a man the summer of 194 7." He perpetuated this claim in a be found guilty of inquiry into seamanship (kuber­ netes) or medicine in contravention of this law of 1964 publication (2) although in 1954 he had written: inquiry into nautical practice, for instance, . ..and (3) especially if he be guilty of airing theories of his own on such things, actions must be taken to suppress I found later that the word had already been used him ... on the charge of corrupting the younger men by Ampere with reference to political science, and and of influencing them to go in for seamanship had been introduced in another context by a (kubernetes) and medicine in an illegal manner. .. Polish seien tist, both uses da ting from the earlier part of the nineteenth century. We can understand this strange passage and Socrates' death in 399BCE by remembering that the much more In continuing to refer to his 1947 coirring of the word totalitarian Sparta had just crushed Athens in 404BCE cybernetics possibly Wiener was stressing the more after a long and bitter war that began in 431 BCE. modern communication feedback theory which was cer­ To refer to a government as a ship of state and the art tainly his unique contribution. of governing as steering that ship was an ancient meta­ phor even in Plato's time. In Cleitophon ( 408 b) he Etymology of Cybernetics writes,

Cybernetics comes from the Greek word for steers­ .. .for every man who knows not how to make use of man or helmsman ( of a ship) K.JlßEPV'IJTT/S which, after his soul it is better to have his soul at rest and not to transformation to Latin, appears in the English word live, then to live acting according to his own caprice. "govern" and its cognates. According to Bardis ( 4,5, 6), But if it is necessary for him to live, it is better after all for such a one to spend his life as a slave rather who gives a rather complete etymology, the orchestra's than as a free man, handing over the rudder of his cymbal is derived from cymbe (a boat), both being will , as it were of a ship, to another man who has curved and hollow objects. In Hebrew the captain of a learnt the art of steering (kubernetes) men. This is the ship was a kvarnit. The Greek motto of the honorary name that you, Socrates, frequently give to politics when you declare that this very same art is that of scholastic society Phi Beta Kappa is "Philosophia Biou judging and of justice. Kubernetes," philosophy (is) the helmsman of life. Both Wiener and Ampere (who will be mentioned While Cleitophon is generally ascribed to Plato the agairr later) spell kubernetes with a chi instead of a genuine authorship is in doubt. kappa. I am assured that kappa is the correct Ietter. Many years later the Roman poet Horace (65BCE to

14 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Nurober 2- Summer 1975 8BCE) used the same popular metaphor in one of his here, which I name Cybernetique, from the word odes to Virgil who was then taking a voyage. xvßepvenxr) which originally had the limited meaning of the art of controlling a vessel, received through usage, among the Creeks themselves, the extended meaning, the art of governing in general. Ampere's Use of Kubernetes

Two years before he died in 1836 the famous French Conclusion physicist and mathematician, Andre-Marie Ampere, pub­ lished a remarkable work in which he sought to classify We see from this brief and incomplete history of the all of knowledge. Some years ago I borrowed a copy of word cybernetics that the roots of the American Society the second edition (1843) from the Library of Congress for Cybernetics reach deep into the past and if anyone and translated the following passage ( 7) which includes doubts the breadth of its subject matter, he has but to his reference to cybernetics: read Plato, Ampere and Wiener to appreciate the scope Chapter 4, starting on page 121, is entitled: of its discipline. In closing it is appropriate to refer to Nausithous Noological Seiences (sciences of the human spirit) Relative to The Means by Which Nations Provide for whose superb helmsmauship as Theseus' pilot on the Their Needs, Their Defense, And for All which Can epic Minotaur voyage for King Minos was thereafter Contribute to Their Preservation And Their Prosper­ honored with yearly celebrations called cybernesia. To ity. me, the word cybernesia has a lovely ring and so I propose that after each serious symposium the Society Section IV, starting on p. 139 is titled: retire to a "Wiener-McCulloch Cybernesia" for more Seiences of the third order relative to means by which relaxed discourse in honor of the two great founders of governments provide external security of the state modern kubernetes. and cause order and peace to reign in their midst. I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Professors The next sub-headings are: Panos D. Bardis and Charles J. Gross in the preparation of this paper. a. "Enumeration and definitions 1. "Ethnodicee." (p. 139) This may be a coined word for it is not in the dictionaries by Larousse, Cas­ sell, or de Vries. It is formed from two Greek roots which Ampere translates "nation" and "right" or "law" (droit). We would probably call it interna­ tionallaw. References 2. " Diplomatie." (p. 140). Diplomacy 3. "Cybernetique." The people-to-people relations, studied in the two preceding sciences, are only the 1. Wiener, Norbert, Cybernetics, or Contra/ and Communica­ least (part) of the functions which a good govern­ tion in the Anima/ and the Machine, second edition, Cam­ ment should take care of; the maintenance of bridge: M.I.T. Press (1961) page 11. The first edition was public order, the administration of laws, the just published in 1948. apportionment of taxes, the choice of men whom 2. ------, "Cybernetics," Encyc/opedia Americana article, it should employ, and all that which can contri­ New York: Americana Corporation, 8, 351, (1964). bute to the betterment of society claims its con­ stant attention. It has constantly to choose from 3. ------, The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics among various measures those which most prop­ and Society, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 15 erly attain its goal ; and it is only by the profound (1954). study and comparison of divers elements that it 4. Bardis, Panos D., Socia/ Science 40, 226, Oct. 1965. can provide, by such choices, the knowledge of all 5. ------, Ietter in Science 150: 827, (1965). that which is relative to the nation it rules, its 6. Fuchsman, Charles H., Ietter in Science 150: 1666 (1965). character, its customs, its opinions, its history, its 7. Ampere, Andre-Marie, "Essai sur La Philosophie des religion, its means of livelihood and its prosperity, Sciences, ou Exposition Ana/ytique d'une C!assification its organization and its laws, so that general rules of conduct can be made which guide it in each Naturelle de Toutes, Les Connaissances Humaines," Paris: particular case. It is, then, only after all the Bachelier, Libraire- Editeur, 1834. A copy of the second sciences which are occupied with these divers goals (1943) edition is in the U.S. Library of Congress,call number that one should rank that one which is the topic Q 177.A 52.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 15

L- The Cybernetic Systems Program at San Jose State University

Edward M. Duke and Norman 0. Gunderson San lose State University San lose, CA 95192 I

lntroduction would be best to reassign them. This coincided with the fragmentation of the then School of Humanities The need for educational programs of an inter­ and Arts into two schools, one of which is the present disciplinary nature is self-evident. The possession of School of Social Sciences. After careful consideration, such knowledge provides a more effective background the School of Social Seiences was selected as the home for solving complex societal problems. In the early school for the program over other suggested possi­ 1960's, some faculty and staff at San Jose State Uni­ bilities. This is where it resides today. versity in California began to explore the possibility of developing an educational program which would fill this need. Encouraged by the positive response from potential students and trustees, an interdisciplinary The Program Theme program was developed using cybernetics as the foun­ The evolved program placed primary emphasis on dation. providing the student with the opportunity to gain knowledge that would help the individual to advance in a chosen profession. The program also took into Program Development consideration that single disciplines no longer provided all of the tools needed to solve modern complex social The pro gram, as first proposed in 1965, was to problems and that optimum solutions will more include both a baccalaureate and a master's degree. probably result from teams made of individuals repre­ The baccalaureate portion was deleted at the request senting the disciplines pertinent to the problem. For of the Chancellor's Office which contended it would this reason, the program was opened to students of all constitute the development of a new discipline at a disciplines. Because a common language and common time when fragmentation of existing programs was tools are needed to increase order during problern being opposed. Economics was the main consideration. solving, the sciences of Cybernetics, systems and com­ While it was argued that the concept attempted to puters were adopted as the heart of the program. The blend rather than fragment, the undergraduate portion program was named the Cybernetic Systems Program was abandoned and efforts were directed to developing to indicate the two main sciences from which it was a master's degree program. structured. The master's degree program was developed by a The purpose of the adopted program is to provide t committee consisting of the Dean of Engineering, some students with an insight into the nature of natural, engineering faculty, and some staff members. This technological and societal systems, and to give them committee recognized the need to maintain the inter­ the tools and skills needed for the orderly planning, disciplinary nature of the program but they were faced development and management of such systems. This ' also with the need to identify with a "home school" in general purpose was further amplified by the eight the absence of a School of Interdisciplinary Studies. objectives established for the program: While initially conceived in the School of Engineering, 1. To provide an understanding of systems concepts the program was placed under the Dean of Graduate such as control, growth and information com­ Studies and Research. This was done to remove it from mon to all systems; any school connotation. The accumulation of addi­ 2. To provide an understanding of system method­ tional graduate programs within this office, however, ology through study of humankind's effort to posed some problems which led to the decision that it identify, analyze and create systems;

16 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 3. To provide a common langnage for understanding quizzes are used to increase the students' mathematical and communicating system concepts; knowledge. Lack of knowledge in computer technol­ 4. To provide training and experience in the analy­ ogy, statistics and probability is similarly treated. sis, synthesis and design of complex systems; 5. To provide training and experience as a working Student Selection member of an interdisciplinary team solving system problems; Student selection has played an important part in 6. To provide insight into some of the important the success of the Cybernetic Systems Program. Suc­ systems of today as they relate to people and cess of the system approach depends on having teams their fu ture; of individuals with a broad range of expertise, interests 7. To provide a framework for further under­ and potential for providing personal leadership. Team standing and development of a student's chosen members should individually and collectively offer pro­ profession; ductiveness, innovativeness, creativity, foresight and 8. To qualify the student to use these skills and awareness of human an.d social values. Students seeking insights on the job in business, government and to enter the program must first undergo an interview industry. with the advisory committee to establish the student's Because of the manner in which the Cybernetic understanding of the program. This interview helps to Systems Program was developed, it has proven attrac­ eliminate many misunderstandings about the program tive to students who have found their undergraduate and serves to develop an awareness of how to plan preparation unsatisfactory and are at a crossroad in graduate work. After a successful interview, the candi­ their development. The traditional graduate program in date must: their discipline offered them further opportunity to 1. complete the Graduate Record Examination study problems but, as they have indicated, with no Aptitude Test with a score above the fiftieth tools with which to solve them. Many students in the percentile. This requirement also applies to program have also expressed dissatisfaction with the foreign students who are graduates of United lack of general tools in the disciplines they have States institutions or of English-speaking coun­ studied. A solution is offered these students by the tries; other foreign students must complete an program; it has a common langnage and a general set English proficiency test and an area test closely of tools for all disciplines allied to their undergraduate degree with a score

above the fiftieth percentile1 or; 2. if the above test scores are not achieved, submit Program Structure three letters of recommendation to the Director of The Cybernetic Systems Program which will The Cybernetic Systems, Program is intentionally provide the advisory committee with information open-ended and flexible in the belief that the real for evaluating the applicant's capability, or; benefit to the student is the freedom to design a 3. accept a Conditionally Classified Standing and meaningful study pattern that is professionally ori­ make up any deficiencies the advisory committee ented. Opportunity is also provided the student to indicates are necessary to obtain Classified complete a project or thesis that applies the philoso­ Standing, or; phy and techniques of Cybernetics and General 4. have an understanding and working experience in Systems Theory to real-world problems. Students are mathematics, statistics and computer usage. advised to associate the courses selected within a The quality of the student admitted to the program specific area of business, industry, education or govern­ is, on the average, as high as that for other Master's ment. degree programs on campus. The average score for the Because of the emphasis placed on the interdiscipli­ GRE Aptitude Test of students in the program is close nary nature of the program, lack of a strong mathe­ to 1200. Approximately one-third of the 125 students matical background is not viewed as a drawback. How­ accepted each year have mathematics, engineering or ever, it is recognized that all students should have physical science backgrounds, one-fifth are business some speaking acquaintance with mathematics to majors and the remainder come from a wide variety of understand computer logic and to communicate with disciplines. Most of those accepted are mature and the mathematically oriented student. Held to be securely employed but are looking for further educa­ equally important is having individuals on problern tion as a means for advancing their careers. With but solving teams who are cognizant of human and social few exceptions, applicants without professional experi­ factors. For these nonmathematical students, special ence or a break between receipt of a baccalaureate non-credit courses are offered that emphasize mathe­ degree and application to the program are rejected­ matical fundamentals used in systems analysis. Instruc­ thus the program is composed of mature students tion in these courses is geared to the progress of the having ideas as to what the program is all about and student. Programmed learning material, tutoring and why they are taking it as their graduate work.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 17 Program Courses Program Administration

Each student accepted must take a core program Officially, the program is under the Office of the consisting of six two-unit courses. The first two, The Dean of Social Sciences. lt is administered by a Technological Society and The Systems Approach are director and an advisory committee made up of qualitative in nature. They emphasize system philoso­ members from each of the major schools. Effort is phies and methodologies. In this respect, these courses made to select committee members who will promote start the formation of a common language. The next the interdisciplinary nature of the program. These two courses, Systems Dynamics and System Simulation members explore the need for additional courses and emphasize the basic tools for systems analysis and suggest action to meet the needs of the program. They control. The final two core courses, Application of also review potential instructors and recommend the Systems Techniques and Systems Seminars, emphasize selection of instructors for the courses. the need for the interdisciplinary approach to solving Part of the success of the program can be attributed societal problems. They also stress the teamwork appli­ to the care with which instructors are selected. The cation of cybernetic concepts and systems theory. As ability of an instructor to contribute to the program is much as practical, these core courses are conducted based on expertise with respect to a particular course with the faculty and the students working as a team. and the ability to relate to the systems concept in In addition to the core courses, each student must teaching. This expertise may have been achieved select a series of courses from those offered by the through education or experience or a combination of Cybernetic Systems Program or other departments, both. An optimal combination of talent in teaching, which as a whole make a meaningful pattern for future experience and achievement is stressed over diploma employment or further study. These courses must meet level. As national awareness of the program has spread, the approval of the advisory committee. Appropriate the number of persons applying for full- or part-time areas include human factors, computer science, behav­ teaching opportunity has ballooned. The problern is ioral science, economics, organizational theory and not one of trying to find instructors but in selecting management. At present fifteen courses, in addition to those most suited to the program. In many cases, it the six core courses, are available to the student for has turned out that the right instructor is a person further cybernetic systems study. These include six who has been through the program and recognizes the special courses that treat the application and impact of philosophy and nature of the endeavor. major factors on society as Cybernetic subsciences. At present, there is no faculty member who has a They are Behavioral Cybernetics, Bio-cybernetics, Edu­ full 12-unit teaching load entirely within the Cyber­ ca tional Cybernetics, Environmental Cybernetics, netic Systems Program. Only the Program Director can Socio-economic Cybernetics and Organization Cyber­ be considered at full load within the program and part netics. In addition, advanced courses are offered in of that is in teaching. The eleven full-time instructors quantitative analysis, quantitative modeling, technologi­ share their time in other departments. To support cal impact studies and computer technology. These them, the program has drawn from 30 or so individuals courses provide ample opportunity for the student to who teach regularly or occasionally. The full-time pursue in-depth research into Cybernetic system faculty have backgrounds in business, law, communica­ science and technology. Depending on the number of tions and engineering. Part-time instructors are drawn units devoted to the project or thesis, 12 to 15 from both on and off campus. The use of off-campus semester units of these or related electives are required. personnel as part-time instructors and guest lecturers The project or thesis selected must be related to the has aided the students in developing an awareness of student's chosen field and yield a practical system the need for interdisciplinary action in solving societal solution or indicate future impact. When the student problems. lt has also conferred a richness and variety chooses his theme, he is required to select three coun­ on the program which would not have been obtainable selors who must approve his topic and with whom he if the faculty had been composed only of full-time will consult and to whom he will report his progress. instructors. The faculty members have profited from Two of these advisors may be from the program staff, contact with other professionals from different dis­ but at least one must be actively engaged in the profes­ ciplines who share the realization of a need for sion the student has selected as his area of interest. systems-type approaches to the societal problems we Upon completion, the project or thesis must be face. defended in an inquiry conducted by the counselors. The use of outside professionals throughout the total study program is encouraged. When used, the Student Impact effect is quite evident in the professional reports and theses received. It has strengthened the production of The program has had considerable impact on the practical solutions to the problems tackled by the students in the program. Some changes in career direc­ students. tion can be expected as understanding and experience

18 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 is gained or new opportunities arise. In many instances, ducted by local teams consisting of faculty team the program has enabled the students to make the leaders with ex-students and outside evaluators from necessary corrections to their initially chosen career industry were the most severe critics. However, no plans. In some cases the graduate of the program has major faults or weaknesses were found. The major rec­ exchanged careers. One student over 30 switched from ommendation was that the Program Director should being an electrical engineer in industry to pursue a consider expanding the program in the future to doctorate in neurophysiology. include a doctorate. The open-ended nature of the program makes it Currently in its seventh year, the program has impossible to guarantee any specific job opportunities grown to the point where it is one of the more for the student. Instead, it is pointed out that an popular programs at the university. No formal outside understanding of the basic concepts of Cybernetics and advertising effort has been made but word of mouth general systems theory combined with the student's has resulted in students coming to the program from undergraduate or professional specialization and the across the nation. A full quota of 125 students are electives taken will establish a career trajectory. Each enrolled each semester. Many are from the local aero­ student is told that employability and advancement space, electronics and nuclear industries, but many will be largely based on the quality of the project others are from government, research laboratories and report or thesis. Most Personnel Managers will not business. The program has found favor in a wide range understand the nature of a Master's Degree in Cyber­ of professions as being the means for improving oneself netic Systems but they can recognize the capability of professionally in a short period of time. a systems-interdisciplinary individual by his project Perhaps the most realistic barometer of the pro­ report or thesis. gram's quality has been the inquiries made of the Although no academic program can keep full track Director's Office by universities throughout the United of graduates and their careers, to the best knowledge States. Inquiries have been received concerning the of the Director's Office, all graduates are employed in availability of the graduates for teaching opportunities their chosen area or a closely allied effort or are at institutions considering implementation of a similar working towards a related doctorate. The reports re­ program. Invitations were extended in general by some ceived indicate that graduates applying for further schools with the suggestion that the graduates be en­ graduate study have been accepted. couraged to consider their schools for further advanced studies. · Requests have been made for instructional Program Evaluation material used in the program. Suggestions have been received that an exchange of faculty would be bene­ The program has undergone two critical evaluations. ficial. These communications corroborate the validity One occurred in 1971 and another in 1974. Outside of developing the Cybernetic Systems Program and auditors were invited to evaluate the suitability and hint that there is a need for similar programs in other effectiveness of the program. In both cases audits con- graduate schools.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 19 Probe On Visual Self Abuse

A. S. lberall General Technical Services, Inc. 8794 West Chester Pike Upper Darby, PA 19082

In designating this department "Probe," we did not settle down to some dynamic motional equilibrium. consciously recall Marshall McLuhan 's frequent use of They do not rest, but they exist in a certain kind of the term. The connection, however, should now be­ sustained motion. In a general way, Maxwell identified come abundantly apparent. this is an intrinsic molecular motion and, subsequently At the U.S. Office of Education 's Conference on Einstein identified a comparable Brownian motion Parent/Early Childhood Education in Denver, on May communicated to all particles immersed in that mole­ 7, 19 75, a serious charge was leveled against television cular milieu. as we know it in the United States. Dr. John R. Silber, lt is important to realize that these molecules do President of Boston University, vehemently detailed not engage only in a push and shove kind of motion. particulars in an indictment of the destructive influ­ Depending on their number density ( the number ence of television programming and advertising in the crowded into each unit of space) and the complexity crumbling of national values and institutions, family of their internal organization, the external interactions structure, social behavior and individual moral and also excite their internal degrees of freedom. They intellectual growth. gyrate, they vibrate, they unwind. However, these Others have expressed similar misgivings with dif­ processes do not take place as rapidly as the pushes ferent emphases. Arthur /berall extends his probe and shoves. The mechanisms are subtler by which the beyond McLuhan and Silber (to explore origins in the conversions to internal actions take place. individual) and out to the reader, to stimulate thought lf in the midst of picturing this purely mechanistic about the communicative links between the medium, picture of small, hard, electrified (e.g., plus-minus the individual and the society. attractions) mass particles joined in coalition to form - The Editor complex weird geometric shapes, the mind suddenly imagines human beings with complex internal organs and including the command-control central nervaus An argument is here advanced to counter the cur­ system, the basic picture is not changed. lt is just that rent enthusiasm for the impact value of incessant visual there may be many more configurations that may be signals, i.e., "the medium is the message." First it is internally excited, and they may be excited much necessary to understand how human beings act and in more slowly. what way their actions are determined. According to What one finds in a11 such systems (of many like the author's model of human behavior, it is essentially active particles that are subjected to gross change) is a impossible to account for the individual acts of the characteristic response to change by modes. Both the human being. But drawing from the analogous proc­ individual particle and the system of particles as a esses in physical systems, the cumulative effect of whole exhibit characteristic modes of behavior in re­ those acts in the larger human ensemble becomes quite sponse to change. In fact, it is by the characteristic deterministic. behavioral modes of the individual that the species of A prototype for this overall process is a collection which he is a member is identified. of gas molecules introduced into an evacuated con­ However, the individual modal steps of the individ­ tainer. As the molecules rush in, each performing its ual are not determinate in order or duration. (They own restricted motion, they collide dou bly, triply, in may be, on the average, when averaged over a consider­ coalitions, and so on, for quite some time. They are able time; or they may be when averaged over a group like the participants at a cocktail party. To some of individuals.) On the other hand the characteristic limited extent, they retain sufficient mobility to modes of behavior of the ensemble are probably deter­ wander about the container. But out of the totality of ministic. In physical theory, the behavior may be all of the interactional processes they engage in, they described by so-called continuum equations of change.

20 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 (That is as if individuals did not exist, only continuous complex technical thermodynamic structure beyond average behavior.) The ultimate dynamic complexities these patterns. contained in these equations of change are not the At present there is no content for that structure. It present concern. likely involves the total psycho-physiological cost of Suffice it to say that while the admission of an activities, not only what actual physical efforts one ensemble of particles to an empty container (e.g., must expend, but also what behavioral actions get one people rushing into an empty theater, or changing up tight. The latter only change and relax in cultural between the end of one performance and the start of time. It takes a few generations to change the epigenet­ the next, or people assembling at a fixed hour for a ically learned outlooks. But it is both the memory cocktail party) might be a somewhat drastic analogy, retention and the actual age of structures (buildings, the more modest changes of getting off or on a sub­ factories, processes) that govern change in the 30-50 way, or entering or leaving a hotel, or changing habitat year range. A modern nation changes its face perhaps and properties from cold to warm, etc., also fall within three times in a century. It isn't until one or two such the province of equations of change. The change visual­ changes in face are made that the directions are appre­ ized is among a group of states each of which is near ciably altered. the dynamic equilibrium in which most individuals The subject at hand has now been turned to the have very similar performance. (When the cocktail characteristic response of the human mind, how its party has gone on for an hour, most participants have outlook is altered. Paul MacLean is likely one of the developed their standard pattern of participation, with most influential members of the neurophysiological only a limited number of types of patterns among the community in providing an elementary view of the crowd.) human mind. He refers to the triune brain. At its base In thermodynamic terms, the system tends to lies the reptilian brain, in which one might say the operate at the lowest cost of ordered energy that the routines or rituals of higher forms of life are governed individuals possess. (The difficulties in proving this and programmed. Surreunding that structure is the theorem in general are quite great. But it will be paleomammalian brain, the limbic structure, sometimes assumed as a guide. Loosely, it would indicate that the referred to as the older "smell" brain. Out of this the individual might stand up on a soap box at a cocktail governing of the world originating from smell, the party and shout at the top of his lungs. His energy world of food and sex and aggression are intermingled expenditure is great, and in fact it may be the lowest (and sometimes confused). Finally at the top emerges cost energetic process for him-if he were, say, patho­ the neomammalian brain, the brain of sight, the logically disturbed. But the cost is miniscule compared primate brain, the brain of cognition and language, and to how the group as a whole tends to adjust to it to coordination of language. As Freud pointed out, the minimize the overall costs. In fact it essentially allows world image of the mammal changed when it took its for a certain fraction of highly energetic individuals in sensitive nose out of contact with the genitalia, stood any case.) erect and took sight of the world. The modes of the human individual are essentially What is characteristic of the neocortex is its rapid known. They relate to his dynamic time scales and response, particularly to sensory signals. It programs at characteristics of his organs. He eats, sleeps, voids, the millisecond level. It devotes a considerable per­ sexes, moves, etc.-in short, performs the simpler centage of its capacity to handling optical signals. physiological activities. In addition, he exhibits various The advantage to the animal is the high degree of p sy cho-physiological modes, characterized as his reliability, redundancy, precision, and reaction speed emotions. These, too, have a chain of performance. possible with optical signals. It is no wonder that with Their particular patterns "fingerprint" the individual. tools and language coordination capability the human (However, it is not surprising that all humans get mad, animal in small numbers could achieve such a domi­ get interpersonally involved, seek sensory involvement, nating role in the ecology. etc.). That emergent evolutionary capability (particularly Man's "hungers" and "wants" derive from these language) permitted man the exploitation of tools and modes. However, the human being is energy limited. structures. He could raise food, he could protect him­ (E.g., one cannot eat an infinite amount.) Within some self from the vicissitudes of cold, of enemies, etc. Life such energy constraint, men organize social structures could become a fairly comfortable overall pattern of to arrive at satisfying responses to, and tradeoffs modes (i.e., it was a comfortable niche in the ecology). among, these hungers. Still, an open question is what His high speed sensory apparatus freed man's imagina­ determines the particular patterning from a sociological tion for other things. The arts, sciences, adventure, point of view. The Marxian view was that the modes creative endeavor were possible. But then at the turn of production of goods and services formed a base that of the 20th century, man added another implementing helped shape both the individual outlook and the insti­ extension-rapid locomotion. The cost of that inven­ tutional form of our cultural patterns. To some extent tion was not reckoned. this is true. But it is more likely that there is a more All of a sudden, man's high speed sensory reaction

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 21 system was challenged. All of a sudden, strange new wave of high speed transportation, motion pictures, hallucinations appeared. Man had new tools of aggres­ books and newspapers? First with regard to books, the sion. Driving along a highway, having to make life­ act of reading requires a !arge degree of translation and-death decisions at the rate of one-per-second, man between the printed word, its visual signal, its trans­ suddenly reinstituted his "forest dangers." formation in the brain into meaning, its translation Fortunately, man only used this mode for limited into cognition. The process is slow. The reader may purposes; "transportation" has been generally from and handle 300 words per minute (or speed readers may to work. The average U.S. family piles up 10,000 miles "handle" 1200 words per minute), but the imagery is per year (i.e., an average of 30 miles per day) which dominated by the brain. Roughly, the paragraph domi­ represents one-half to one hour-per-day (two to four per­ nates. One image per 5-20 seconds is more likely. But cent) of "high" - speed travel. It changes man's habits, this is the better time scale for reverie. The teacher makes him much more a restless creature, one who fighting a classroom while presenting boring reading seldom cares to walk, but still quite recognizable. The material is quite weil aware of the dominance of effect is to kill and maim a certain number of his internal reverie over the printed word. fellow beings per year ( or day ), and to change his The newspaper attempts its more topical intrusion; urban-suburban style of living. it is more overwhelming than the book (also more lt is perhaps not thought of this way often, but frequent). The reader chooses his own absorption rate there was an earlier development-the refrigerator- that at which to use the material. Yet the differences can made the transportation system quite feasible. Up to be noted between newspaper and book. It becomes a the 1920's, urban homemakers had to shop nearly useful reverie escape to saturate the senses with the daily, because of the spoilage of food. With refrigera­ newspaper for a limited period, say in the morning tion, the storage period was extended to a week. One (e.g., if the brain wishes to escape from attention at did not have to be that close to sources. The auto­ breakfast or during work transportation). While the mobile then permitted the luxury of distance expan­ styles are culturally dependent, the desire to escape sion. self selected cognition in terms of being driven by But then the technological explosion continued. Its external cues is very much a human characteristic. precursor was the daily visual assault of the news­ (Other primates would not bother at all with written papers, the realization of the Age of Gutenberg. While abstract material.) the onslaught was slowed by reading speed capability, But the degree of entrainment is self selected and it was clear that the subject matter chosen was the its rate of acceptance is governed by internal reverie. most sensational (i.e., exciting via the senses to internal Note how many (few) can take the mammoth Sunday imagery) that could be assembled. News has been New York Times and knock it off the agenda, in say defined, not as the usual that continues to happen, but 1-2 hours, the first thing Sunday morning. Thus the the unusual. morning newspaper is an intruding signal on the human All these processes were still limited until the higher condition, bu t it remains dominated by individual speed assault on the visual sensory channels. The high choice, because of its competitive difficulty. Note the speed saturation of the visual sense and the motor easy way in which "low brow" periodicals ( daily, decision making of the CNS that derives from the weekly, monthly, or even aperiodic) choose to tie up visual signalling being processed by the neocortex were people energy-by sex, violence, quick adventure, or by first achieved for limited periods in the automobile, the most mawkish of human emotions or sentiments. and then were followed by the high speed verbal Motion pictures also were limited in impact. "Every­ (aural) assault of radio ( 1925 onward). In passing, one one" went to them in their heyday (1930- 1950), but of course must mention the high speed visual assault of a person had to "go" to the movies. lt was an act of the motion pictures ( 1910 onward). The stage was some inconvenience and of some cost, (admittedly low finally set for the most horrible assault of them all, the enough to become widely available). But the very eco­ incessant visual assault of television (195 5 onward). nomics of the process made motion pictures expensive Walk into a room in which television is on. It is to make and required their wide distribution for eco­ virtually impossible for any human brain to avoid its nomic viability. Thus there was a rate governing the Iitera! pull. A high frequency assault on the brain, process. One could see only one (or two) films at a particularly visual and partially auditory, takes place. It time, only a few per week. Thus, even for the most entrains the interior, and it takes the most concerted avid, it was impossible to get more than, perhaps, will to break the chain of passive in teraction. Perhaps a five to ten hours of watehing per week. At most the small fraction of "intellectuals" (i.e., persons accus­ imagery was long-term. To a considerable extent, the tomed more often to place and focus their sensory and avid fans spent more time in reverie, etc. on their CNS attention in directions of their choosing) are favorite motion picture stars and their fantasies than capable of breaking the hypnotic chain, but few others on watehing motion pictures. are. It has been difficult (impossible) to get a regular In what way does television differ from the first fare of as much as two legitimate theaters per !arge

22 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 American city, except New York, with any kind of (i. e., of goods, or experience, or wealth, or knowl­ regularity. Yet, within a year or two, large cities have edge ), the irnagery quickly stresses the difference five to ten pornographic movie houses available (i.e., between haves and have-nots. The contrasts quickly get the takeover was quick, sure, and adapted to the your attention. An anxiety is created on which to market). Adults are free to go. The price is appre­ select-the "good" life (whatever that is) or the "fast" ciable, but not difficult. Yet, in very few exposures, life (whatever that is). As a most obscene version of the male mind-reverie-is saturated. Even the most the selection, a number of articles in The Philadelphia avid male has difficulty taking the imagery more often Inquirer ("How to Climb in Philadelphia," a series, see than once a month (12 pictures completely saturate). December 20, 1971) described the requirements for So we come to television. Instant image, low cost, achieving "social" status in that city. The utter vulgar­ incessant, in the hause, nonlinear (i.e., not absorbed in ity and abuse of the human condition simply did not linear sequences like words). What happens? The pro­ enter the writer's remarks at any point in the article. ducer (seducer) has every means at his disposal to keep Yet any mental cognition-of television imagery, of selecting, choosing, modifying, feeling out the pulse high speed driving imagery, of the third kind of "trip," and rhythm at which the mind can accept change. The by drugs-against the slow moving picture of the economics, fantastic though they are (i.e., like the canons and clerics of society assembled by and with moving picture was before, but even more so), still town clubs, dancing classes, country clubs, exclusive permit an indefinite expansion and experimentation. hause parties, money spent for charity, all activities The mind-reverie can be indefinitely entrained. with no real involvement by or with the populace, One must note the important propeny of statistical simply confirms the obscenity of the picture. mechanical ensembles. They will rush in to fill any To any who might regard the choice of the term­ space available to them. (This is more fundamental "obscene" -as questionable, we may note that although than, say, Gresham's law). lf "suddenly" half the obscenity is not well defined, the author has proposed students in any class become actively homosexually the following psycho-physiological definition. It is un­ available, would not their attentions become quickly related to pornography. Every individual has a body accepted? Or if they became active solicitors of sexual image of himself, the state of his internal parts, and of partnership; or active pushers of drugs; or active the external world. In my terms, a person whose pushers of rock music? The answers would seem clear, "body image" (of both internal and external cyclic the available dynamic space fills up. events, i.e., his entire "superego") is well composed Thus the danger of unlimitr.d availability of high and placid; will regard any presentation put before him speed sensory signalling is that it quickly becomes which is too complex in structure and "jittery" with used. (The automobile was rate governed by cost, the regard to his "ego" image (by definition, one's own airplane even more so. More recently reduced cost of ego image is stable, all else is moving-when this is air travel has made it widely available in group form, upset, the individual is in trouble), as obscene. To a not individual form. The skills required for auto­ person whose image is multi-dimensional and darting in mobiles, and their self murdering quality have time structure, almost no image can be obscene. This is permitted them to find a mass market but still at a the essence of the concept. It fits in with the concept slow pace. However the full danger to society is not proposed. yet clear.) So what? My well composed image of the world is man The acceptance of high speed signaHing increases the directly concerned with man. The image of a "Dance internal instability of the human organism. The human of the Toreadors" in which individuals posture and is no longer capable of acting by reflective cognition never become involved, is obscene. (requiring a langer time scale) but by high speed Thus man-educators, citizens, others-must face nervaus reaction, by impulse, and by (ultimately) low this issue. Will he permit an indefinite abuse of his speed guilt, and anxiety. We have changed the human body and mind apparatus by means that can only be condition. (Consider current American statistics. More ultimately destructive to his species, or is he willing to than 95 percent of all homes have television. The do something regarding its regulation? The author's average home has its television on nearly six and one­ own opinion is not sanguine. He doesn't believe man half hours per day.) turns around. Thus we may all have to live forever Consider some of the most horrible illustrations of after (till our doom) with this new monstrosity. the instability. lf you are young or otherwise deprived

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 23 BookReview The Elephant in the Soap Rubble

Christopher R. Longyear Department of English University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195

Meaning and the Structure of Language, Wallace L. A plethora of descriptions threaten to overwhelm Chafe, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. attempts to survey an active field such as that of Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, Noam Chomsky, semantics in natural language. The citations of texts Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1965. "reviewed" here is a tiny fragment of the massive Course in General Linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure, Iiterature on the subject; clearly, my brief comment cannot pretend to review adequately even any of this (ed.) Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, and Albert minuscule sample. Rather, I hope to suggest an Reidlinger, (tr.} Wade Baskin, New York: Philosoph· approach to such a problem, for I believe the frame of ical Library, 1959. reference I have found helpful may permit one to Charles J. Fillmore, "The Case for Case," (in) Ernmon impose a semblance of order on a chaos that is real Bach and Robert T. Harms, (eds.), Universals in enough. Linguistic Theory, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1-88, 1968. The Soap Bubble M.A.K. Halliday, "Language Structure and Language Function," (in} john Lyons, (ed.}, New Horizons in When he was scientific advisor to Sir Winston Linguistics. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng. : Churchil1, Lord Cherwell answered a question about 140-165, 1970. whether e1ectrons were "really" waves. I 1earned of it M.A.K. Halliday, Angus Mclntosh, and Peter Strevens, by way of an out-of-the-way 1ittle book on metallurgy "The Users and Uses of Language." The Linguistic (Electrons, Atoms, Metals and Alloys, Wil1iam Hume­ Seiences and Language Teaching, Bloomington, IN: Rothery, London: The Louis Cassier Co., 37ff, 1948). lndiana University Press, 1965, reprinted in: Richard The metaphorica1 answer makes use of an abstract W. Bailey and jay L. Robinson, (eds.} Varieties of re1ation between soap bubb1es and rods in torsion. I Present Day English, New York: MacMillan, 9-37, have found the metaphor he1pfu1 in trying to appre­ 1973. ciate differences between abstract mode1s and practica1 concerns in the fie1d of linguistics. Semantic Interpretation in a Generative Grammar, Ray But first, a version of the metaphor itself: S. jackendoff, Cambridge, MA.: The MIT Press, Suppose you were hired by the Mammoth Motors 1972. Corporation to design torsion-bar Suspensions for the Semantic Theory, Jerrold J. Katz, New York: Harper front end of the models projected for 1980. Your goal & Row, 1972. would then be to figure out what thickness of rod, Outline of Stratificational Grammar (rev. ed.), Sydney what length, what metallurgical composition, and the M. Lamb, Washington, DC: Georgetown University, like would give desired results of springiness, economy, 1966. and reliability. As Mammoth's right-hand front-end james D. McCawley, "The Role of Semantics in a person, you might seek out engineering precedents for rods in torsion. Let us suppose that you find some Grammar," (in} Ernmon Bach and Robert T. Harms, engineering equations that relate some of the para­ (eds.} Universals in Linguistic Theory, New York: meters of rods in torsion to others (for example, there Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 124-169, 1968. might be a formula relating amount of twisting force Language in Relation to a Unified Theory of the Struc­ to amount of twist). Now that formula is valid in the ture of Human Behavior, (second, rev. ed.} Kenneth context of ideal rods only. That is to say, it may L. Pike, The Hague: Mouton, 1971. presuppose all sorts of simplifying assumptions such as

24 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 ideal homogeneity, perfect uniformity of cross-section, opmental psychologists like Piaget, Bruner, and Luria and the likeo Though patently a falsification of the have insisted that the child learns language at first not world of torsion-bar front-end components (look at the to communicate with others, but to communicate with reject pile over in casting!), the formula is helpful and to control itself. As possibly the most complex precisely because it is an abstraction and a selection system in the universe, as surely the most effective from realityo Suppose now that we discover by some means of communication for humans, and as probably fluke that a formula relating some parameters of soap the most efficacious control and self-control mecha­ bubbles to each other turns out to be of exactly the nism we can imagine, human language need offer no same form as the formula we noticed for rods in excuses to show up in this journal. torsiono We could then begin using soap bubbles (or rubber membranes which are a bit sturdier) to deter­ The Elephant mine experimentally what those parameters should beo Lord Cherwell's point was that a soap bubble math­ Language, as a huge, complex, and import-ant ematics used for rods in torsion does not necessarily system that is on the one hand universally shared by mean that the rods in torsion are "really" soap all humans ever and on the other hand used to express bubbleso For us, there are several other features of this the most particular, individual, and unreproducible situation worth noting: the first is in what way there is manifestations in poetry-language is bound to be ele­ (and is not) a correspondence among members of the phantine in the sense of Milton Katz' editorial of the series stretching from the front end suspensions of last issue, "Men of Indostan and Other Placeso" I hope that the metaphor of the soap bubble may help to let particular 1980 cars through soap bubbleso A second is us begin to suspect that perhaps we do have a some­ the way that stations along this path imply strengths thing, even though at first blush the parts seem so and weaknesses in the orientation which these points extraordinarily disparate that we can hardly hope for of view imposeo And thirdly, why is this particular coherenceo metaphor worth considering from a cybernetic point of If we look at how Pike views the more traditional view? structuralism of de Saussure, we note: We have begun with a series of books attempting to tell us something of the state of semantics in linguistic As more and more materials in speech begin to theoryo The few titles listed are, in fact, a mere sam­ appear structured, the view that 'language' as a pling of an ever swelling Iiterature; important books as structure differs from 'speech' as activity is weil as important collections and individual articles threatenedo In behavioremics, furthermore, the have been ignored hereo Perhaps a word on why cyber­ structural units always retain substance as relevant to their manifestation modeo 0 0 0 Under the impact netic concerns are involved would be welcomeo If of these two factors, we abandon the distinction cybernetics is, among other things, a discipline whose between la Iangue and la parole proposed by de concern is communication and control in artifacts and Saussureo 0 0 0 (po536) nature, then surely one of its concerns should include that most communicative and most controlling of Though this particular passage refers to phonology devices, natural languageo George Steiner in his most rather than to semantics, it should be clear that Pike's recent book, After Babel (Oxford, 1975), reminds us: tagmemics differs in a number of important respects from de Saussure's structuralismo If we turn to Halli­ Regarding the possible transfer into English of day, we note this comment: Chinese philosophic concepts, I.Ao Richards remarks: 'We have here indeed what may very The 'competence' vso 'performance' dichotomy runs probably be the most complex type of event yet the risk of being either unnecessary or misleading: produced in the evolution of the cosmoso' unnecessary if it is just another name for the dis­ ["Towards a Theory of Translating," (in) Arthur tinction between what we have been able to de­ Fo Wright, (edo), Studies in Chinese Thought scribe in the grammar and what we have not, and (Chicago, 1953), po250o) He may be righto But misleading in any other interpretationo (Halliday the complexity and range of implication were (1970), Po 1450) already present in the first moment of human speecho (p.48) The distinction of course refers to Chomsky's Not only is the complexity of human language such famous contrast: that no linguist will claim of foresee anything but frag­ Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an mentary descriptions of any language for a very long ideal speaker-listener, in a completely homogeneaus time to come, but we have also to consider that the speech-community, who knows its language per­ ten billion ( or so) neurons in a human nervous system fectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrel­ interact in ways we do not fully understand (cf. evant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, and errors (random Roland Fischer's "The Brain Looks into its Mirror," or characteristic) in applying his knowledge in ASC Forum, VI,3, ppo20-23)o The neurological factors actual performanceo 0 0 0 We thus make a funda­ are certainly far from understoodo Furthermore, devel- mental distinction between competence (the

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 25 speaker-hearer's knowledge of his langnage) and per­ many highway fatalities will the company tolerate formance (the actual use of language in concrete when these can be blamed on an economical quality situations). (pp.3f.) control system? In brief, the use to which rods in We shall return to other facets of the elephant torsion are put plays a central part. below when we consider langnage and its uses and Particularity can increase beyond this point, of users. For the moment, we should merely note that course. The mechanic who aligns a specific pair of there do seem to be deep areas of disagreement not front wheels may rely on a manual of specifications only among partisans of conflicting theories, but as we and tolerances. His concerns of the moment may be shall see, even among partisans of the same party. We whether the job is easy or difficult; can he get away can try to acquire all the different contexts out of with not replacing a particular part? Will he finish which each theory grew, but that seems to me to be a before lunch? His context has become localized to a terribly difficult task. lt may be helpful to have a particular part of a particular car at a particular time frame of reference in which disparate points of view and place. are seen to be natural and in fact desirable. Seen in this fabulous simplicity, should we all aspire to be bubble heads? Don't we agree that universality and generality are ever to be preferred to particularity? The Pachyderm and The Thin Film But wait: are the global and universal contexts really so general when they have nothing to say about The pachyderm and the thin film, it seems to me, lunchtime? Does the admittedly impressive generality can be seen as fairly widely separated stations along a that subsumes soap bubbles, rods in torsion, and plan­ definite continuum. If the thick-skinned exemplar of etary systems absolve the bubble heads from highway massive particularity holds down one end of that line deaths or from the need to eat? In a less moralistic with its ponderous and inescapable factuality, then the vein, what makes us imagine that "local" means "less" shimmering perfection of the almost invisible thin film or that "general" means " more?" whose shape is its major feature- and is, in fact, the The stations along the pachyderm bubble line are siruplest of all three-dimensional shapes, a sphere­ not fixed locales with an unehauging population. I glistens at the other end. would suggest that we as individual human beings and Let me try to trace very roughly a path from as scholars and scientists traverse this line, some farther soap bubble to pachyderm in terms of our automobile in one direction, some farther in another, but only in front end suspensions. We start at the bubbly end, pathological cases do we remain fixed in a single loca­ noting that the extremely abstract relation holding tion. The strength of specialization is that a shared between some soap bubble parameters and some rods­ context can be assumed and not have to be redefined in-torsion parameters is that of similarity of mathemat­ each time. The weakness is that the very reliability of ical form. I would suggest that we can ask important the context imposes blind spots on our vision. questions about that relation. Why is it that there is a similarity? What does it imply? Does it matter that it may be nothing but sheer coincidence? Presumably, Language, Language Use, and Language Users the physicist would try to use the coincidence as a hint that there are underlying regnlarities, perhaps in The shimmering attraction of linguistic universals is the natural laws of the physics of matter.. The philoso­ one most lingnists are reluctant to dismiss. But just as pher of science might wonder whether one can ask the generality of the soap bubble achieves its scope at questions like, "Why these regularities? Why not some the expense of particularity, so the model of langnage other laws?" lf the physicist's context is "global," we es p oused by most transformational grammarians might label the philosopher's context "universal." achieves its range at the cost of excluding a good deal The engineer working out the equations of rods in of actual langnage use and almost all reference to torsion is surely glad enough for any help from mathe­ langnage users. Halliday's objection to Chomsky's matics or physics. But as engineer, he need not dichotomy between competence and performance, (though he may) be concerned with the theory of noted above, reflects his interest in the uses to which matter; coincidence or no, any practical formula that langnage is put and his concern for the social inter­ relates the specific parameters of twisting force to actions among users. Where Katz and J ackendoff both amount of twist will do. His context is much more seem to claim they are in the mainstream of transfor­ local and much more particular than that of his more mational-generative langnage theory, their currents bubble-headed friends. diverge. Chafe's description of langnage includes pro­ The front-end-designer has even more particular and vision for "old" and "new" information, explicitly in local concerns. His context in fact includes the rod-in­ terms of how a speaker assumes shared information torsion equations as only a small part; many other with a listener. McCawley, like Chafe and Lamb, sug­ concerns must affect his decisions: cost, reliability, gests a semantic rather than a syntactic basis for lan­ means of attaching, to name a few. For example, how guage, in which he is joined by Fillmore.

26 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 The catalog of partial agreement and considerable the soap-bubble may give us a means of putting discus­ discrepancy could go on at length, but does adding sions into frames of reference that are commensurate more than six men of Indostan add anything to the enough for productive dialag to occur. fable? To return to our soap bubble, we seem to have Might it be that some of the apparent difficulties here another instance of engineer, philosopher of that plague linguistic accounts of what language is (and science, and front-end mechanic trying to talk to each where "semantics" fits) is parallel to some of the other apparently about the same subject matter but qualms occasionally expressed by cyberneticians? As from points of view that are importantly enough dif­ each subdiscipline develops its own tools and generality ferent to make communication very difficult and frag­ in one direction, it cannot help reduce its scope in mentary. I suspect that this kind of fragmentation is a another sense. As linguists are beginning to understand sign of vigoraus intellectual activity, and therefore far (and as I hope I am), social interactions play an enor­ from being depressed by it, am in fact encouraged by mously important part in whether communication its presence. The more attempts there are in semantics occurs in any productive way. The soap bubble may to describe alternative formulations, the more we shall certainly reflect a little of the pachyderm, but only a be able to judge the consistency and the range of each. little, and that little in an inevitably distorted fashion. The more disparity there is, the more likely we are to The more we study the influence of local contexts, the have a real elephant lurking beneath our palpating more we realize that our shimmering generalizations hands. lf nothing else, however, an awareness of the may, in particular circumstances, turn out to be dimension Stretching from a specific alignment job to chimeric.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 27 Letters to the Editor

On Book Reviews The Author's Reply Mr. Ruffington points out that the first paragraph (I Dear Editor: assume he means especially the last two sentences of When I read the biographical sketch of Dr. Christo­ that paragraph) gives the impression of unwarranted pher Longyear on page 27 of the Spring 1975 issue of personal attack on the authors of the Howerton collec­ Cybernetics Forum, I was so impressed by his scholarly tion. In an effort to cut down on the manuscript and scientific background that I turned to the Book length to more manageable proportions, a section was Review section with a feeling of great assurance that I excised which drew a parallel from the dangers of would find a really profound and objective review of "inbreeding," as I called it, in academic departments Management of Information Handling Systems, by Paul and disciplines (when they become overspecialized and W. Howerton and his colleagues. But after reading only ignore challenges from competing theoretical positions) one paragraph of the review I was driven to the con­ to similar dangers in limiting one's point of view to a clusion that Dr. Longyear's talents as a book reviewer single, compatible frame of reference. The contrast is do not begin to compare with his credentials in engi­ also between the rich theoretical diversity of the neering physics and English literature. Garvin volume and the lack of theoretical diversity in There is a difference between a man with an the Howerton volume. The principle of selection in the opinion and an opinionated man. The former may Howerton book, I hoped to suggest, was certainly not support or dispute a given proposition, depending upon theoretical diversity. In fact, its major obvious prin­ the considered opinion which he holds on the subject. ciple of selection (in this sense, "un-principled") I The latter is prone to fire a broadside shotgurr blast at coul<1 glean from comparing the books under review any proposition which is not consonant with his own was a geographic one, and this is something that did opinion. And, judging from the patronizing and cava­ give me a twinge of apprehension. Her manner with which he treats the Howerton book, Mr. Buffington's demonstrated sensitivity to the lan­ it strikes me that Dr. Longyear is an opinionated man. guage led him to read that first paragraph in a The technique of damning with faint praise is one of manner for which I take responsibility and which I the hallmarks of intellectually snobbish book-reviewers. certainly regret. I publicly and frankly apologize to Mr. I make no pretense of being able to match the Howerton and to his co-authors for giving that impres­ undisputed qualifications of Dr. Longyear as a man of sion, which if intended, would indeed have been insup­ letters and science. But I can read English, and when I portable. I do not know Mr. Howerton or most of his do so, I try to understand what the author is saying. co-authors; I assure them that my objection through­ On this basis I must say that I read and understood out the review has not been of them personally, but of Management of Information Handling Systems, and the absence of theoretical principle on which to build benefited by reading it. I did not wince at the applications to practice. "blatant inbreeding" that gave Dr. Longyear a "twinge The ASC Cybernetics Forum, I believe, is a platform of apprehension." As a matter of fact, I see nothing from which to exchange points of view; if however evil in the circumstance that the majority of the co­ peripherally, some exchange occurs, it serves at least authors of the book are members of the faculty of the that purpose. Reviews will continue to express emphat­ American University's Center for Technology and ically a diversity of points of view; I hope they will do Administration, which specializes in the discipline so with a decreasing frequency of unintended impres­ covered by the book. To me this seems as logical as a sions and with an increasing frequency of substantive study on strategy made by the faculty of the National issues being debated. The best way I know to accom­ War College or a position paper on national security plish both is for the review editor not to have to be prepared by the National Security Council staff. review author as well. Let me take this opportunity to I deplore the type of book-reviewing in which the urge the readers to send reviews to the editor so that reviewer indulges in disparaging and insulting references he can perform his proper function. But, if in our to the work reviewed, and ad hornirrem assaults upon efforts to avoid the bland, the line between provoca­ the professional integrity of the authors. This type of tive and provoking is sometimes crossed, I hope we can conduct ill befits scholarly endeavor. continue to count on our readers to provide provoca­ tive (or even provoking) counterstatements.

Milton W. Buffington 7207 Bybrook Lane Christopher Longyear Chevy Chase, MD 20015 Book Review Editor

28 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Vo1ume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 Conference Calendar

4-8 August 1975 19-20 September 1975 ONE WEEK COURSE IN RECENT ADVANCES IN SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND THE FUTURE OF TIME SERIES FORECASTING AND SYSTEMS HEALTH, co-sponsored by the Society for General CONTROL, Post-College Professional Education, Systems Research and the Groome Center, Washing­ Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie-Mellon ton, DC. University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 23-25 September 1975 20-26 August 1975 19 75 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THIRD WORLD CONGRESS OF THE ECONO­ CYBERNETICS AND SOCIETY, IEEE SMC METRIC SOCIETY, University of Toronto, 150 St. Society, at The Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Fran­ George Street, Toronto 5, Canada. Program Com­ cisco, CA. The Conference will cover the full range mittee Chairman: Professor Mare Nerlove, Depart­ of the field of systems sciences and engineering. A ment of Economics, Northwestern University, 629 special theme, however, will be "Technological Noyes Street, Evanston, IL 60201. Forecasting and Assessment: 1975-2000."

25-29 August 1975 25-26 September 1975 THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN CYBERNETICS AND SYSTEMS, World Organisa­ SOCIETY FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION tion on General Systems and Cybernetics, Bucha­ (SEFI) on "Research and Engineering Education," rest, Romania Director-General and Congress Technical University, Lausanne, Switzerland. Adviser: Dr. J. Rose, College of Technology, Feilden Street, Blackburn BB2 1LH, Lancashire, 26-30 October 1975 England. THIRTY-EIGHTH ASIS ANNUAL CONFERENCE, Sheraton-Boston Hotel, Boston, MA. Theme: Infor­ 30 August-3 September 1975 mation Revolution. The meeting will examine the EIGHTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION OF effects of the emergence of new computer network, THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIA­ communication and reprographic technologies as TION, Chicago, IL. For information contact: Mona weil as the accelerated growth of the research litera­ Marie Wachtel, APA, 1200 Seventeenth Street, ture. Contact: Skip McAfee, jr., ASIS, 1155 Six­ N.W., Washington, DC 20036. teenth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20036, (202) 659-3644. For information on submitting papers, contact: ASIS 1975 Technical Program Committee, P.O. Box 224, Needham, MA 02194. 3-8 September 1975 INTERNATIONAL JOINT CONFERENCE ON 17-19 November 1975 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (IJCAI), Tbilisi, NATIONAL ORSA/TIMS JOINT MEETING on USSR. General Chairman: Professor Erik Sandewall; "OR/MS and Logistics," MGM Grand Hotel, Las Program Chairman: Professor Patrick H. Winston, Vegas, NV 89109. The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 545 Technol­ ogy Square, Cambridge, MA 02139. 16-20 june 1976 INTERNATIONAL FEDERAT/ON OF AUTOMAT­ 14-19 September 1975 IC CONTROL (IFAC) Symposium on "Large Scale ENGINEERING FOUNDATION CONFERENCE on Systems Theory and Applications," Udine, Italy. "Information Technology for Public Services," co­ Theoretical tools and techniques for solving practical sponsored by the National Bureau of Standards, problems arising in: industrial process control; infor­ Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, CA. mation processing; bioengineering; economic systems; Co-chairpersons: Madeline M. Henderson and Edwin environmental dynamics and control; agricultural J. Istvan, both of the National Bureau of Standards. systems; power systems; systems for management and For further information contact: Engineering Foun­ administration. Contact: G. Guardabassi, Istituto di dation, 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY Elettrotecnica ed Elettronica, Politecnico di Milano, 10017. Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 3 2, 20122 Milano, ltaly.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 29 About the Authors

V. G. DROZIN RICHARD H. HOWE Dr. Drozin is Professor of Physics Richard Herbert Howe obtained at Bucknell University in Lewis­ his degree from the University of burg, PA. He holds a Physics Illinois in 1971. Since that time he diploma from the University of has worked as a freelance writer, Göttingen, Germany, and a Ph.D. editor, and translator here, in from Columbia University, New Germany, and in Canada. He has York. Dr. Drozin's present re­ been associated with the Biological search interest is the application of Computer Laboratory, Department cybernetics to social problems and of Electrical Engineering, Univer­ to automation of the teaching­ sity of Illinois, Urbana, since learning proco::ss, particularly the correlation between 1969. biopotentials of a learner and his degree of concentra­ tion. HAROLD K. HUGHES Dr. Harold K. Hughes returned to EDWARD DUKE college teaching (physics and Edward Duke is a member of the mathematics) in 1974 after a Iudustrial Engineering staff at San career in business administration Jose City College, a senior associ­ and five years as Vice-president for ate of The Cybertechnics Institute Academic Affairs at State Univer­ and a quality systems engineer at sity of New York College at General Electric Company, Nuclear Potsdam. He holds 18 patents, is Energy Division in San J ose, Cali­ the author of numerous fornia. He received his B.S. in publications and has served the Chemistry from the University of ASC in several capacities since Washington at Seattle and his M.S. 1967. in Cybernetic Systems from San Jose State University. He is actively engaged, domestically and internation­ ARTHUR S. IBERAll ally, in promoting the application of cybernetics to Arthur lberall was trained as both quality control. He has held seminars and lectures on physicist and mechanical engineer this subject for many professional groups. He is also at City College, City University of teaching a related course at San Jose City College. New York and George Washington University. He has progressed from NORMAN 0. GUNDERSON instrumentation at the National Norman 0. Gundersou is Director Bureau of Standards to research of the interdisciplinary Master's directing for industrial R&D com­ D egree Program in Cybernetic panies in an extremely large Systems of San Jose State Univer­ number of fields (aircraft instru­ sity. This Program was conceived ments and accessories, home appliances, earth proc­ and implemented in the mid- esses, materials, medical instrumentation, dynamic 1960's during the period he served systems analysis, regulators, controllers, biophysics, as Dean of Engineering, from problems in gaseous, liquid, and solid state, hydrody­ 1955- 1970. He received his B.S. namics, space hardware, inertial guidance, artificial degree in Civil Engineering from intelligence), to a very broad analysis of all systems the University of Wyoming in 1939, served as an in­ (molecular, biophysical, social). He now does 'think-do­ fantry officer during World War II, and returned for an cut-metal' R and D in his own little company. Two M.S. degree in 194 7. He obtained his Engineer's Degree books, Toward a General Science of Viable Systems from Stanford University in 1955. His primary profes­ and Bridges in Science-From Physics to Social sianal interest is in the area of technology and society Science, tend to summarize his present state of prog­ and the development of courses and curricula pertinent ress toward a generalized scientific basis for cyber­ to a rapidly changing society. netics.

30 ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Volume VII, Number 2- Summer 1975 CHRISTOPHER LONGYEAR Dr. Christopher Longyear is Associate Professor of English at the University of Washington at Seattle. He received his B.S. in Engineering Physics from Lehigh University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. While a Research Fellow at Har­ vard University, Dr. Longyear worked with Warren McCulloch. Dr. Longyear was a member of the professional staff at the General Elec­ tric Advanced Study Center in Santa Barbara where he worked with Fred Thompson on natural language ques­ tion-answering systems. He has been an advisor on applied linguistics to the government of Pakistan.

Call for Papers The 1976 National Computer Conference will be held in New York 7-10 June 1976. Papers are needed in every area of Computer Science, Data Handling, EPD Applications, and Information Processing. Hither-to un­ published papers (six copies of the manuscripts) are to be submitted to the Program Chairman, Dr. Stan1ey Wink1er, IBM, 18100 Frederick Pike, Gaithersburg, MD 20760. Deadline: 5 January 1976.

ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Valurne VII, Number 2-Summer 1975 31 Statement of Editorial Policy The ASC CYBERNET/CS FORUM is an internationally distributed quarterly publica­ tion of the American Society for Cybernetics. lt is published to promote the understanding and advancement of cybernetics. lt is recognized that cybernetics covers a very broad spectrum, ranging from formalized theory through experimental and technological develop­ ment to practical applications. Thus the boundaries of acceptable subject matter are inten­ tionally not sharply delineated. Rather it is hoped that the flexible publication policy of the ASC CYBERNET/CS FORUM will foster and promote, the continuing evolution of cybernetic thought. The ASC CYBERNET!CS FORUM is designed to provide not only cyberneticists, but also intelligent laymen, with an insight into cybernetics and its applicability to a wide variety of scientific, social and economic problems. Contributions should be lively, graphic and to the point. Tedious listings of tabular material should be avoided. The Editors reserve the right to make stylistic modifications consistent with the require­ ments of the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM. No substantive changes will be made without consultation with authors. They further reserve the right to reject manuscripts they deem unsuitable in nature, style or content. Opinions expressed in articles in t heASC CYBERNETICS FORUM do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM or its editors, or the American Society for Cybernetics or its directors and officers. All material published in the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM is Copyright by the American Society for Cybernetics who reserve all rights.

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Papers a\ready published or in press elsewhere are not about 3 em (or 1.25 inehes) of spaee around all margins aeeeptable. For eaeh proposed eontribution, one original of standard letter-size paper. The first page of the manu­ and two eop ies (in English only) should be mailed to seript should earry both the first and last names of all The Editor, ASC CYBERNET/CS FORUM, Suite 911, authors and their affiliations, ineluding eity, state and 1025 Conneetieut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D C zip eode. (Note address to whieh gal\eys are to be sent.) 20036. Manuseripts should be mai\ed flat, in a suitable All sueeeeding pages should earry the last name of the enve \ope. Graphie materials should be submitted with first author in the upper right-hand eorner. suitab\e eardboard baeking. Style: While the ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Types of Manuseripts: Three types of eontributions demands a high standard exeellenee in its papers, it is are eonsidered for publieation: full-length artieles, brief not a seholarly or teehnieal journal. Authors should eommunieations of 1,000 words or \ess, and letters to avoid mathematieal formulae and \ong lists of referenees the editor. Letters and brief eommunieations nn gener­ or footnotes. Titles should be brief and speeifie, and ally be published sooner than full-\ength manuseripts. revealing of the nature of the artiele. Aeknowledgments Books, monographs and reports are aeeepted for eritiea\ and eredits for assistanee or adviee should appear at the review. Two eopies should be addressed to the Editor. end of artieles. Subheads should be used to break up- and set off- ideas in text. Proeessing: Aeknowledgment will be made of reeeipt of all manuseripts. The ASC CYBERNETICS FORUM Graphie Materials: All artwork submitted must be in emp loys a reviewing proeedure in whieh all manuseripts finished form suitable for reproduetion (blaek on white) are sent to two referees for eomment. When both and \arge enough so that it will be legible after reduetion referees have rep\ied, eopies of their eomments are sent of as mueh as 60%. Photographs shou \d be b\aek and to authors with the Editor's deeision as to aeeeptability. white g\ossy no !ess than 5" X 7". Authors reeeive galley proofs with a five-day allowanee About the Authors: A brief biography (less than one for eorreetions. Standard proofreading marks shou\d be page), a\ong with a small photograph, must be sent with employed. Correeted galleys shou\d be returned to all manuseripts. This will be ineluded in the "About the Ameriean Soeiety for Information Seienee, Suite 210, Authors" seetion of eaeh issue . 1115 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 22036. Manuseript Return : Authors who wish manuseripts Format: Manuseripts should be typewritten double returned must inelude a stamped, self-addressed enve­ spaeed, on white bond paper on one side only, \eaving lope along with their manuseripts. ASC PUBLICA TIONS ORDER FORM

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