Newsletter of the Arrerican Society for Cybemetics Barry Clemson, Editor 314 Shibles Hall Universi ty of Mai.."'le Orono, ME 04469 Nurober 17, Sept. 12, 1982 'Ihe address of the ASC is: 2131 G St. N.W., Washington, OC 20052 ASC Conferer1ce ASC Election Cybernetics and Education The Ballot for the ASC Election is 'Ihe (almest) final program for the enclosed and needs your i.mrediate Annual rreeting is attached. A attention (the ballots will be stellar array of scholars from c~m:ted Oct. 15 so that the new cybemetics and education have o:f7cers can meet with the current agreed to participate. We are otflcers during the October 18-21 expecting another excellent meeting in Colurnbus). Please rreeting. Send in your registra­ C?mplete and retum your ballot Wl thout delav. tion form for ~~e conference and J. the hotel as soon as possible. lJ::M Air Fares For East Coast Cyberneticians Wondering hcw to afford the II J.,:Jr----....__ qirfare to b~e ASC Conference ~1 ' ( ;· L1 Columbus??? You can go on People's Express Airlines for $88 round trip frorn rrost East Coast cities. People' s Express charges $44 for weekends (one way) and $69 for weekdays (one way). By Mika Peten tor l.ho Da.ylon DIIHy News Synposium: Autononw, from Physics to Political Science Translated for us by Jean A.H. Bourget It is, of course, too early to submit an assessment and a synthesis of the amazing symposium held at the 11 Centre Culturel Internationalu (International Cultural Centre) of Cerisy la Salle, from 11 to 17 June 1980, organized by J-P Dupuy et P. Durnonehel on 11 Autonomy, from physics to political sciences, 11 but we can already officially acknowledge the strong stream of interest which arises from this polarization of research in systemics and its specific value. During seven days, 95 motivated participants have not exhausted this subject, which, ten years ago was almest unheard of. Neither did they divide it into sub-disciplines and related coteries: the autonomy of a system, in qeneral, is a 11 vector 11 concept which gives rise to an efficient build-up of new or renewed knowledges. These first impressions give rise to thoughts and discussions as we wait for the publication of the proceedings - which is scheduled for the beginning of 1982 by the Editions du Seuil. A truly transdisciplinary and transcultural research is be possible; philosophers, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, psychologists, linguists, economists, logicians, engineers, sociologists, politicologists ... exchanged ideas effectively on the concept of autonomy without being bored or running out of ideas. The concept of autonomy should not be 11 reduced 11 too fast. It now unfolds into many 11 theories 11 which do not all meet spontaneously. The main leading axes now seem to me to be those opened by Henri Atlan, F. Varela, et 0. Hofstadter (the latter, in fact, was quoted many times at Cerisy). Butthis cleavage will most likely be challenged, to the possible benefit of a presentation based for example on the contributions of H. von Forrester, E. Jantsch, I. Prigorine and C. Castoriadis. I, myself, believe that the hyper-paradigm of complexity suggested by Edgar Morin,constitutes the most stable and fruitful interpretative framewerk of these thoughts, but this belief is not yet shared by all. These tensions, inherent to all sciences, can be interpreted by re-questionning our epistemological certainties(?); this proves indispensable for some and unbearable for others. I perceive this re-questionning exactly in the same terms as those required for the scientifical proof of systemics: the autonomy of systemics implies the systemics of autonomy. Although the argument has been referred to relatively very little at the Cerisy symposium, this epistemological re-questionning calls for a re-assessment of the 11 11 legitimacy of logic •• on behalf of the necessity for new formalisms for other statements of logic. It is not favorable to the building-up of auto-reference logics (or recurrence) the science of autonomy might not progress very far within the frame of a so-called natural logic. We must admit that this thesis is usually contested by the same persans who contest the scientifical levity of systemics. We should only see in these 11 first impressions'' an invitation to further consideration and not, in any way, the premature synthesis of a symposium, of which we can say without doubt that it will make a mark in the history of systemics and may even go further. AMERICAN SCCIEI'Y FOR CYBERNEI'ICS Co-Sponsors: Chio Acad~ of Science , College of Education Ohio State Universi ty ANNUAL CONFERENCE: CYBERNEI'ICS AND EDUCATION overview The general goal of the conference this year is to initiate rreaningful discussion wi th education professionals on ways that the insights and rrethods of cybernetics might help to irnprove educational practice. We are confident that such discussion can be mutually beneficial. Sorre of the more noteworthy systems scientists/ cyberneticians attending the rreeting are: Herbert Brun Ernst von Glasserfeld F. de P. Hanika Daniel Howland Klaus Krippendorf Gordon Pask IX>reen Steg 'Ihe education luminaries attending the conference include: Milton Goldberg Harold Mitzel Luverne Cunningham Keith Hall 'Ihe program is organized into several strearrs. 'Ihe first strearn might be characterized as the hard core cybernetics strearn and runs throughout the four days. There are also three separate education related streams that run Jvbnday through wednesday: Educational uses of the computer Managerrent and Administration The State of Math and Science Education in the U. S. The fourth day, Thursday, will be devoted entirely to the cybernetics stream. 'Ihe t-1ath and Science Education stream will be conducted on the group-process rrodel. It will begin with a presentation on the current state of the area by Robert Howe, Director of the ERIC Center on Science and Math Education, and participants will work the following bo.D days wi th the goal of reaching concensus on suggested action steps. The leader of this workshopwill be Richard Zelonka, a professional organi­ zation developrnent specialist from the Pittsburgh area. 'Ihe meeting is being officially co-sp::>nsored by the College of Education at Ohio State and by the Ohio Academy of Science. It has been made an official activity of the Ohio School Study Council. The education people have responded very positively to our invitation and we expect 100 or so of them in attendance. The conference registration fonn is on the reverse side of this sheet. The hotel reservation card is enclosed for your convenience. Lnw Air Fares For East Coast Cyberneticians Wondering hcw to afford the airfare to tl1e ASC Conference in Colurnbus??? You can go on People's Express Airlines for $88 rotmd trip from rrost East Coast cities. People • s Express charges $44 for weekends (one way) and $69 for weekdays (one Way). AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS 2131 G Street NW Washington, DC 20052 1982 Annual Meeting Registration Form Name ----------------------------------- Date A_ddress Institutional Affiliation (for badge) Please register at your earliest convenience. Fill outtheseparate room reservation card and senditto The Christopher Inn. Be sur-e, ~!1 any cor.tact with them, !Q_ indicate ~ connection with the_ ASC meetinq_. The registration fee is $65. Send this amount and the completed form to: Dr. Jon Cunnyngham American Society for Cybernetics The Ohio State University 1775 College Road Columbus, OH 43210 AMERICAN SOCIETY FüR CYBERNETICS 1982 Annual Meeting Monday, October 18 draft 9/1 9:00 Opening Session Welcome from Ohio State: Official Convening: Stuart Umpleby, ASC President Conference Overview: John Hayman, 1982 Program Chairman 9:45 Keynote Address Milton Goldberg, Executive Director National Commission on Excellence in Education 10:.45 Break 11:15 A Cybernetics Perspective Mike Pearson Wright Patterson Air Force Base 12:00 Lunch 1:30 Address: The French Association for Economical and Technical Cybernetics Robert Vallee President du Coll~ge de Systemique, Paris 2:00 2:00 2:00 Seminar: Seminar: Talk: Fundamentals of Cybernetics The New Cybernetics On Floating Hierarchies - I Stuart Umpleby Larry Richards Herbert Brun 3:00 Paper Session: Cybernetics and Systems Research F. de P. Hanika Education is Nesting of Systems Charles A. Fink 4:00 Paper Session: Cyberneticians Do It with Control George W. Cl a rk 5:00 Cybernetics and the STS Curriculum I John de la Mothe & Laura Winer Dinner and Special Cash Bar 8:00 Paul Trachtman -- Planning for The Cybernetics Fo(um -):' .:;; /j ASC 1982 Annual Meeting Tuesday, October 19 General Session: Russell Ackoff Management Scientist University of Pennsylvania Reaction/Discussion: Ernst von Glassersfeld 9:30 Presentation: Use of Micro­ Management Workshop: Talk: The State of Math and Workshop: Learning How to F· computers with hard-of­ Science Education in the US in Academe hearing children. Russell Ackoff Robert Howe William J. Reckmeyer Sue Rose Jamshid Gharajedaghi op: aper Sess 10n: 10: 30 wo rks nop: A Joint-Action Program to Teaching Cybernetics Cybernetics and the Arts Address Math and Science Larry D. Richards Herbert Brun Education Needs Goals: Psychologists Have Tl Stuart Umpleby Richard Zelonka, Leader W. Tom Bourbon 12:00-1:30 Lunch General Session: Wi 11 i am Powers Astronomer 2:15 Reaction/Discussion: Barry Clemson Paper Session: Management Workshop: Workshop: A Joint-Action Paper Session: Nets, Networking, or Program to Address Math and Conversation Theory in Computer Conferencing R. Ackoff Science Education Needs Education -- Gordon Pask Richard Zelonka, Leader Legitimate Learning Througl Joseph Rothberg (continued) M. (continued) Cybernetic Conversation Gary M. Boyd 4:00 Presentation: 4:00 Panel on Management: Sociocybernetics and Education in an Bandy, Brzeinski, Educational Philosophy Ambulatory Setting Culbertson, Gladvs M. Busch Moon Chen Clemson 3:45 Seminar: A Formal Structure of Conscien< Vladimir A.