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Number 5 - November 7 AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS NEWSLETTER Number 5 - November 7. 1980 edited by Roger Conant REPLY TO : 1108 SEO, UICC, Box 4348, Chicago 111. 60680 : 312/996-2308 ----------------------~------------------------------------------------------------- PRlNTlNG THE NtWSLETTER SOCRATIC SYMPOSIA SERIES Barry Clemson by Roger Conant Heinz von Foerster, Stafford Beer and I was embarrassed at the low quality of Seymour Sarason are the featured guests the last newsletter, which was run off on for the 1980-81 Socratic Symposia Series a di~to machine to save money (the cost of at the University of Maine. The Symposia putt1ng out the issue and mailing it came a~e designed to provide extended, indepth to $23.04 altogether, a stingy job) and d1alog among scholars and practitioners. also a little horrified at the amount of time it takes to do the mechanical work. The Symposia with von Foerster and Beer Fortunately Stuart has discovered a person will be January 12 to 15 in Orono, Maine. who seems willing to take on the publica­ The schedule is: tion aspects of the Newsletter - Virginia Jan. 12; evening, von Foerster speaks; Holt. Consequently 1 wil I continue on as topic to be selected. the editor, putting things tagether and Jan. 13; all day, seminar on self­ producing the final copy, but she will do organizing systems; von Foerster and all the dirty work. fsn't that a fine Beer. arrangement? Thanks, Virginia! Jan. 14; all day, seminar on self­ 1f you are not getting this newsletter organizing systems; von Foerster and Beer. please notify Stuart Umpleby who in the Jan. 15; morning, research consul­ abs~nce .of a membership chairman (see tation with Beer. not1ce 1n this issue) is keeping the The all day seminarswill be limited to a records. maximum of thirty and to those familiar with at least some of the relevant ~lease, you readers out there, come on 1nto the newsletter with your comments 1 iterature. guiding question, puzzles, jokes, problem~ The Symposium with Seymour Sarason does to solve ... And to do that kindly ad­ not yet have a firm date, but will occur dress your entries to me at the above semetime during spring semester. address. Sarason will deliver a speech one evening and will hold an all day seminar the following day. We can provide a free (or nearly so) NEWS PAGE lN CYBERNETICS FORUM place for ASC members to sleep and restaurants are very cheap in Orono-­ by Stuart Umpleby so come join the festivities! I will gladly provide further infor­ Jean Weir, a former student of mine, has mation: tel. 207-581-2792. agreed to edit a one page news feature in College of Education Cybernetics Forum. It will contain short University of Maine items of long-term interest, somewhat in Orono, Maine 04469 the manner of the Periscope page in Newsweek. Look for it! ------------------------- page 2 GLOSSING OVER CYBERNETlCS MODEL BUlLOlNG LAWS by Stuart Umpleby by Barry Clemson Two glossaries on cybernetics are now The following statement is slightly_adapt­ available, one through Paul Henshaw and ed from A. Oexter Chapin's formulation of one through Stuart Umpleby. Henshaw's his vocation: glossary contains 203 terms in 19 pages. Each term has one short definition. There "Model building ts part science, are two appendices. part art, part magic. The second glossary contains 198 defini­ ti ons and i s 47 pages 1 ong. 1 t was The model builder is subject to the fol­ developed between 1977 and 1980 by cyber­ lowing immutable laws of nature: neticians and svstem theorists in the US, Canada and Europe using the Electronic 1 - the data you want is not what you Information Exchange System (EIES) at New need; the data you need is not readi ly Jersey Institute of Technology. The glos­ available; the data readily available is sary developed at the International Insti­ not reliable; al I remaining data is pros­ tute for Applied Systems Analysis in Aus­ cribed by the privacy code! tria is included within this glossary. Since it is being developed on line, the 2 - any model that is readily acceptable glossary can easily be updated, and anyone to your client(s) is trivial. with access to EIES can participate in the discussions that produce the definitions 3 building a model that is not trivial anct examples. Henshaw's terms will be is a grimly expensive business. added to the ElES glossary as soon as 1 get a chance to do so. 4- a \'Jell-built, profound model .always looks trivial. Fora copy of Henshaw's glossary, write to Paul Henshaw, 6050 Camino fsquina, Tuscon 5 - finding employment as a model builder AZ 85718. For a copy of the EIES glos­ tsexceeded;n difficulty only by remaining sary, send $4 to cover duplicating and employed as such. mailing expenses to ASC, 2131 G Street NW, Washington DC 20052. 1o find out how to A. Dexter Chapin, when last sighted, was get access to EIES, see Newsletter #3. busily applying his laws of model building to large scale health systems tor the TlE CLASPS .ANO P!NS federal government. by Stuart Umpleby LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTIONS The archives of the Society include some jev1el ry! We have forty ti e cl asps, seven by Stuart Umpleby tie tacks and fifteen pins. 1he design consists of the ASC symbol in blue enamel letters and the word "cybernetics" in Please check the list of schools on three-dimensional letters down the right page 9 to see whether your library hand side. The finish is 22K gold. The currently subscribes to Cybernetics tie tacks and pins are almost a square, Forum or the Journal of Cybernetics and Information Science. Library 3/8" x 7/16". The tie clasps have this same square mounted on a gold bar. They subscriptions are an important source are quite attractive. Six designs were of income for every academic society. Submitted and the final choice was made at temember, the few minutes it takes to a Board of Directors meeting in 1970. The ask a library to subscribe will gene­ tie clasps are $12 and the tie tacks and rate income for the Society for years pins are $9. Make checks payable to the to come and make the work of leading American Society for Cybernetics and send cyberneticians available to future generations. To find out how to ask your order to 2131 G Street NW, Washing­ your library to order the ASC publi­ ton, DC 20052. Don't wait! They may not last long. cations, see page 9. LEVELS AND BOUNOARIES page 3 from Prof. Dr. G. de Zeeuw essential, in helping to understand, improve and solve business (and personal) has come for a conference to be situations. Reflecting on my formal engi­ 1d in Amsterdam on April 21-23, 1981, neering and business education I would under the aegis of the Systeemgroep Neder­ judge Ashby's cybernetics to be as valuable land. The emphasis at the conference will to a business and management career as any be on clarifying problems of levels and subject learned (self-taught) during my boundaries, using experience gained by educational experience. I have used it to participants in various . disciplines. consistently get agreement among members Rather than reproduce the conference blurb of a group, to succinctly but precisely here:- if you ·are interested contact define complex manufacturing (and other) Stuart UMpleby or Roger Conant who have processes, to define the nucleus of a new copies. Hurry though - the deadline for form of administration that deals realis­ submission of abstracts is December 15, tically with the bureaucratic problems of 1980. the large organization, and to fix every­ thing from difficulties caused by muni­ SOME THOUGHTS ON DIRECTION cipal bureaucratic bungling to a motor­ cycle. by BRUCE ABELE For there to be any significant social I would like to use the newsletter to benefits from the discipline there are two solicit views on an aspect of cybernetics important conditions which must be met: about which there seems to be a lack of awareness and much misunderstanding. In an • The discipline must be clearly dis­ attempt to keep this aspect separate from tinguished from other bodies of many other subjects using the label "cyber­ knowledge also labeled "cybernetics" netics",I refer to it as Ashby's cyberne­ (Upgraded Technology·, Information tics or the discipline of cybernetics. It Technology, Computer Technology, is a clear cut body of knowledge well de­ Goal-seeking Behavior, and Communi­ fined in Ashby's classic "Introduction to cation in the Anima! and Machine to Cybernetics". name a few). The important attributes of the discipline, in particular the Ashby's cybernetics is a "math" or disci­ careful use of a developed vocabul­ pline consisting of a vocabulary (of about ary, become diluted and forgotten 90 words) and a set of associated generali­ when the discipline is confused with ties. It is similar to geometry except other bodies of knowledge with the that the vocabulary relates to a world of same labe!. change and complexity instead of to a world of shapes and space. In addition • There must be broad public education Ashby's emphasis is on the careful devel­ in the subject. In contrast to most opment of a vocabulary in contrast to the of the other types of cybernetics it emphasis on formal proofs found in geome­ is unlikely that a small body of try. Because of this "development" process experts armed solely with Ashby's the vocabulary has an unusual combination discipline will discover truths or of attributes, namely broad generality make predictions of much value to combined with concreteness, and it is this society. On the other hand if taught combination that brings much of the value in high school it would speed up and to the discipline.
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