AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR

NEWSLETTER Number 6 - December 1, 1980 edited by Roger Conant 1108 SEO, UICC, Box 4348, Chicago Ill. 60680 (312) 996-2308 President of ASC: Stuart Umpleby, 2131 G St. N.W., Washington DC 20052: (202) 676-7530

PASK ON TOUR GLOBAL 2000 REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT by Stuart Umpleby The Council an Environmental Quality has exhausted its supply of the report "The , an internationally Global 2000 Report to the President: known British cybernetician, spoke on Entering the Twenty-First Century." his current research on October 29, at Copies may be purchased from the US George Washington University in Washing­ Government Printing Office .. Mailing ad­ ton, D.C. He had earlier on this trip dress is: Supt. of Documents, US Govt. visited San Francisco, New York and Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. Boston. Gordon has written several books, Prices: $3.50 for Val. 1, The Summary including An Approach to Cybernetics, Report; $13.00 for Vol. 2, The Technical Humanities Press, 1961; Conversation, Report; $8.00 for Vol. 3, The Government's Cognition, and Learning; A Cybernetic Global Model. Theory and Methodology, Elsevier, 1975; The Cybernetics of Human Learning and Stuart plans to have a panel discussion on Performance: A Guide to Theory and this report at the next ASC conference. Practice, Crane-Russak, 1975; and Conver­ sation Theory, Applications in Education and Epistemology, Elsevier, 1976.

Gordon reviewed his work on teaching GOING TO WEST COAST COMPUTER FAIRE? machines, expanded on the story of "the ------~------night the colloid solution grew an ear", and said that he thinks of hirnself as an We are trying toset up literature tables, epistemologist. He said that given with ASC promotional brochures etc., ot current conceptions of science, it may be conferences attended by folks who are easier for people to understand what likely prospects for ASC membership. Com­ cybernetics is about if we call it a puter conferences seem to be natural tar­ philosophy rather than a science. gets. Is anyone in ASC going to the 6th West Coast Computer Faire, April 4-6, 1981? If so would s/he be willing toset up and care for such a literature table? If so, contact Stuart Umpleby. ...

ASC PANEL AT THE ACAPULCO CONFERENCE

by Stuart Umpleby much attention has been focused an micro-computers, more important s~rvi­ The American Society for Cybernetics ces will result from a combination of was a co-sponsor of the International communication and computation. Before Congress an Applied Systems Research and too lang we can expect harne information Cybernetics held in Acapulco, Mexico, retrieval services, printing an demand, December 11-16, 1980. George Lasker, the computer conferencing and electronic chairman of the conference, asked me to mail. But cybernetics is not only chan­ arrange a panel on cybernetics. The mem­ ging the amount and kind of information bers of the panel were Howard Hilton, available to us. It is also changing Mark Ozer, Joseph Goguen and Ernst von our assumptions about how we live and Glasersfeld. how we know. New perspectives in epi­ At the festival in Maine in July stemology promise to have important im­ 1980, it was decided that an effective plications, particularly in the social way to spread the idea of cybernetics sciences. As just one example, cyberne­ was to arrange panel sessions at confe­ tics continues to be a source of innova­ rences arranged by other societies in tion in the field of psychiatry. This addition to having our own annual confe­ panel will review current trends in a rence. Below are the introduction to nurober of areas from the implications of the Acapulco panel and the abstracts new information retrieval systems to the of the papers presented. If you would latest developments in epistemology. like copies of· these papers, please write The members of the panel are a diver­ to the authors. If you would like to se group of people. They come .from diffe­ comment on the panel or any of the ab­ rent disciplines and focus an different stracts, send a short article to News­ applications. What is the interdisci­ letter editor Roger Conant. plinary interest that this group has in common? To find out, we have tried to use a common outline for our presenta­ tions. Each member of the panel will Session on define what he means by cybernetics. CURRENT TRENDS IN CYBERNETICS Then he will explain how he uses cyber­ netics within bis particular area of Arranged by interest. Finally, each member of the Stuart A. Umpleby panel will explain what cybernetics con­ tributes that would not otherwise be present in bis field •. During its first decades cyberne­ tics advanced an several fronts. Com­ puter technology has moved forward at a remarkable rate, with capabilities SOME IMPLICATIONS OF CYBERNETICS increasing and costs decreasing. A FOR THEORIES OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS nurober of modeling languages have been developed, and computer simulation Stuart A. Umpleby is beginning to be accepted as a rou­ Department of Management Science tine part of the management process. George Washington University Progress in Washington, D.C. 20052 has not been as spectacular as many forecast, but important advances have Abstract: been made. Work on theoretical foun­ Cybernetics, the science of communi­ dations has moved beyond a concern with cation and control, bad its origin in a information and rr.odels and is now desire to explain the physiological basis pushing the study of cognition into of knowledge. The study of how people the area of ethics. know what they know soon runs into the Current trends in cybernetics in­ ambiguities produced by self-reference. volve making computer technology avail­ In social systems self-reference can be able to the general public. Although illustrated by self-serving observations

2 .... FEEDBACK, INDUCTION, AND EPISTEMOLOGY and theories. Self-reference confounds our attempts to produce descriptions of Dept. of Psychology social systems with which most people University of Georgia can agree. An understanding of these Athens, GA 30602 difficulties is important for the manager as well as the social scientist. The Abstract: concept of self-reference illustrates The author argues that control devi­ how cybernetics is extending science into ces based on the principles of negative the domain of management and calling feedback and inductive learning are an attention to ethical considerations as illustration of an epistemology that con­ well. siders knowledge a system-specific inter­ nal construction. This theory of know­ ledge is inherent in Piaget's analysis of cognitive development and requires a VIDEOTEX, CYBERNETICS, AND HUC radical shift in our view of the relation between knowledge and ontological reality. Howard J. Hilton Instead of iconic correspondence or iso­ 5480 Wisconsin Ave. N.W. morphism, which sceptics have always held Chevy Chase, Md. 20015 to be impossible to ascertain, the crite­ rion for the assessment of knowledge is Abstract: its fit within the constraints of expe­ Videotex is a development that will rience. Cognitive constructs are seen involve millions of people in the daily as the result of an organism's active process of selecting and retrieving, with interpretation of experience, analogaus the aid of computers, information in their in principle to interpretation in lin­ homes. Cybernetics, being the science of guistic connnunication. control and communication, will have a multitude of new applications and data for study. The Hilton Universal Code (HUC), an information concept for the PLANNING WITH PATIENTS: unique identification of all recorded A FEEDBACK LOOP ENGENDERING HEALTH knowledge and information, can provide an interface and feedback mechanism Mark N. Ozer between the videotex user and the com­ George Washington School of Medicine puter. 3000 Connecticut Ave. NW Videotex and cybernetics are terms Washington, D.C. 20008 that are subject to various definitions. This paper presents definitions in the Abstract: context of the information process, re­ The collection of da~a about a per­ views the present state of development, son in medicine has as its ultimate goal and suggests some of the implications the enhancement of the health of that for the future. It also reviews the person. Eliciting a history from the experiment with "HUC Access to Knowledge" patient - both the process used and the on the British viewdata, later Prestel, content of the data sought - could itself which was the beginning of videotex. enhance health. The present system for Other videotex systems have been data collection may be made more effec­ developed in France, Canada, and Japan. tive in reaching the goal of health en­ Various experiments are in progress in hancement if there is explicit use of the the United States. A comparison of principle of mutual causality. several major systems is provided. Some applications of cybernetic principles to these developments are indicated to­ gether with a description of the HUC hardware and software.

3 . . =-=·- . ---··- .. / / SaME NEW DIRECTIONS IN EPISTEMOLOGY

Joseph A. Goguen SRI, Room L3078 linear causality. The presuppositional 333 Ravenswood Avenue structures of whole cultures have been Menlo Park, CA 94026 compared by a careful study of certain central 'texts'; for example, see the Abstract: Beckers' study of the Javanese shadow Western thought has been obsessed with theatre and its music, which exhibit cy­ epistemology for over two thousand years, clic rather than linear strategies of and it may be that nothing new remains to organization. See also 's be said. Yet there seem to be some new new book Mind and Nature: a Necessary questions, some new doubts, some new ways Unity. of trying to find out, having radical im­ plications which we are only beginning Mathematicians (such as Newcomb to discover. The sources of this ferment Greenleaf and Gabriel Stolzenberg) are are varied: the biology of Humberto Ma­ questioning the bases of mathematical turana and ; traditional truth. (Are all the real numbers really Buddhist philosophy, particularly as pre­ real? What about those which cannot be served and developed in Tibetan sources; constructed? How much can we really the hermeneutics of Heidegger and others, know about infinite objects?) The work as presented by Herbert Dreyfus and Fer­ of Varela, Louis Kaufmann and others on nando Flores, for example; artificial paradoxical logics like that of Spencer­ intelligence and cognitive science, as Brown raises, fundamental questions about studied by Terry Winograd and Eleanor the nature of thought. Psychologists Rosch; intuitionist mathematics, as ori­ (such as Eleanor Rosch and Amos Tversky) ginally developed by Brouwer; the ethno­ are questioning what the experiments of methodological studies of Garfinkel, Sacks, cognitive psychology really tell us. Moerman and others; the 'New Philology' Artificial intelligence raises the que­ of Altan Becker; and studies of lingui­ stion of whether or not there really is stics, including discourse structure and anything uniquely human in the domain metaphor, by George Lakoff, Haj Ross, of thought. Charlotte Linde and others. These stu­ dies share an emphasis on the experimen­ One reason for believing that there tal dimension, and an insistence on exam­ may in fact be some coherence to the ining the actual processes of how we trends mentioned above, is that all of come to know, or to believe that we know, the living people mentioned above (ex­ without presupposing what it is that we cept Spencer-Brown) have been inv~lved can know. in classes and discussions about these subjects at Naropa Instit~te in Boulder, The biological studies of Maturana Colorado. This is a non-sectarian but and Varela question the usual view that buddhist inspired school, founded by the we have, in our minds, some kind of re­ Tibetan scholar and meditation master presentation of an external reality. In­ Venerable Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, and stead, they speak of the 'compensations' here one can find forceful expressions of an autonomaus system to perturbations. of the traditional buddhist view that Winograd and Flores have used this view, epistemological studies should be based plus that of hermeneutics, to explore on the direct experience of cognition the limitations of artificial intelli­ which occurs in meditation. gence.

The new schools of are examining in incredibly fine detail the methods by which we come to agree that "in fact, something has happened." The new schools of linguistics are exam­ ining the presuppositions which are built into our very language, such as

4 ""' TORONTO CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

by Stuart Umpleby 1:30-4:30 pm AAAS/SGSR/ASC panel arranged by Bill Reck­ The American Society for Cybernetics meyer and Roger Conant. is meeting in conjunction with the Socie­ Panelists include t y for General Systems Research (SGSR) , Mi­ at its annual meeting January 6-9, 1981, hajlo Mesarovic, George in Toronto, Canadao We have arranged Klir, Stuart Umpleby, several sessions within the SGSR confe­ Michelle Small, and renceo ASC members will need to register Bill Gray. (Territories for the SGSR conference, which is being Room, Royal York Hotel) held in the Four Seasons Hotel. There will be no separate registration for ASC. Below is a schedule of ASC relat­ Friday, January 9 ed activities. 9:30-12:30 am Panel arranged by Roger Conant (Windsor Room) Tuesday, January 6 2-5 pm ASC business meeting for all members. There 8-9:30 am Registration will be reports from the 12:30-5:30 pm Lunch and meeting of ASC meeting of the officers officers, trustees and and trustees on Tuesday interested members. A and the workshop on the number of organizational Scientific Process on and policy issues need Wednesday. (Windsor Room) to be reviewed and plans made. (place to be de­ termined) I hope that as many ASC members as pos­ sible will attend the Toronto meeting and participate in making the decisions Wednesday, January 7 that will chart the course of the So­ ciety for the coming year. 9:30 am-5 pm The Scientific Process-­ an all day workshop on the history and future of science with an em­ phasis on cybernetics. We shall review trends, identify promising areas for research, and make plans to further the development of the key ideas (Lancaster Room) 7-8:30 pm Lecture by Stafford MEMBERSHIP CHAIRPERSON NEEDED Beer (Lancaster Room) Virginia Holt has agreed to fill in as Thursday, January 8 membership chairperson until a replacement is found. However she is already doing 9:30-12:30 am 1) Panel arranged by substantial service to ASC and a permanent Barry Clemson (Lan­ chairperson is needed. Please contact caster Room) Stuart if you would like to investigate 2) Panel arranged by this opportunity. See the item in the Larry Richards (Kent last newsletter. Room)

5 HEILPRIN ON INFORMATION SCIENCE

by Stuart Umpleby r of such a competitively invulnerable community is the medical community.) Larry Heilprin, a former member of the Assumption of both new functions ASC Board of Trustees and a former pre­ would be necessary and sufficient. sident of the American Society for Infor­ More are not needed, but anything mation Science (ASIS), has been a key short of both would probably lead figure in the rejuvenation of ASC. Below to absorption of functions and per­ is the abstract of a paper that Larry sonnel of the library community by published in the November 1980 issue of other, more competitively adaptive the Journal of the American Society for informational communities. Information Science. ASIS consists pri­ marily of librarians. Remernher that the ASC meeting in November 1981 will imme­ diately follow the annual meeting of ASIS.

THE LIBRARY COMMUNITY AT A TECHNOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL CROSSROADS: NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS FOR SURVIVAL

Laurence B. Heilprin College of Library and Information Services University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 NEW YORK CITY CHAPTER STARTED ------The community consisting of libraries by Stuart Umpleby and library schools is examined for Paul Pangaro, a friend of Gordon Pask and the probability of its long-term sur­ Michael Ben-Eli, has agreed to work on vival in its recognizable present setting up a chapter of the Society in New form. Evolution, especially the later York City. If you would like to work with human-artificial stage, shows essen­ Paul on arranging a speaker's series or tial functions tending to continue other activities, get in tauch with him at but intense competition to determine 212/758-6268. which structures (self-regulatory adaptive systems) will carry on those functions. The library community is a system that appears insufficiently equipped to compete adaptively over the long term. To be competitively invulnerable would require, in addi­ ------tion to carrying on its present RESIGNATION AND REPLACEMENT essential functions, assumption of two new ones: (1) support of basic ------information science, including re­ Al Kreger has had to resign as treasurer search leadership in the field, and of the ASC due the pressure of other work. (2) constant self-renewal through President Umpleby has asked Alex Bhanos to some drastic form of continuing serve as treasurer temporarily, at least education, e.g., joint commitment until the Trustees meet in Toronto. by school and Student to lifelong cyclic return to the school, follo­ wing the first degree. (An example

6 EIES SUBACCOUNTS DISCONTINUED EIES INTRODUCED TO OTHER SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES by ~1ary vJhittaker r Since very few people have been active in The Electronic Information Exchange the subaccounts established by ASC within System (EIES) at New Jersey Institute of the Electronic Information Exchange Sys­ Technology (NJIT) was demonstrated at the tem, they are being discontinued. Merrill annual meeting of the Council of Enginee­ Flood, Manfred Kochen, Anders Sandberg, ring and Scientific Society Executives George Tracz, Stuart Umpleby, Mary Whit­ (CESSE) o Bill Savin (206) told the histo­ taker and Fred \~ood a re rema in i ng on- 1i ne ry of EIES, and Robert Bezilla (213) ex­ in differenct types of accounts, and Mary plained the basic components of EIES f rom Whittaker will continue to provide assis­ the perspective of scientif i c and enginee­ tance to ASC users. Anyone interested in ring applications. Bruce Conlin of the obtaining their own account or further American Society of Mechanical Engineers information should contact Anita Graziano, demonstrated how societies can use EIES Administrative Assistant, Computerized through the Legitech and Publictech Ex­ Conferencing and Communications Center, changes within Politechs-on-EIES. Bob New Jersey Institute of Technology, 323 Vernon of Texas Instruments demonstrated High Street, Newark, NJ 07102; how EIES was used by the JEDEC group to (201)645-5503. overcome industry jealousies and secrecies to arrive at group consensus on important design standards o Leonard Dauerman of NJIT reported how EIES was used to preplan · NSF- PROGRAM------ON REGULATION--- activities and rapidly brief participants - - before an important conference on hazar­ dous waste disposal. The Division of Applied Research of F.J o VanAntwerpen of the American the National Science Foundation has a pro­ Institute of Chemical Engineers, a pre­ gram on public policy problems relating vious president of CESSE, spoke of the to government regulation. The program importance of associations aligning them­ supports both disciplinary and interdis­ selves with systems such as EIES to meet qiplinary research. Government regula~ future challenges. The talks were follo­ tion has emerged as a public policy wed by a demonstration of EIES. It seems issue that is likely to persist for many likely t hat several associations may soon years to come. The Regulation Research explore use of EIES for their activities. Program seeks a better understanding of As a result of this meeting, the Arnerican the costs, benefits and equity consequen­ Nuclear Society has already joined ASME ces of regulation so that regulatory and AIChE in Politechs on EIES. A new processes may more effectively accomplish Techtech Exchange within Politechs is social goals. planned to facilitate intersociety infor­ The program desires to expand the mation exchange, as soon as ten or more areas of research and disciplines current­ technical professional societies become ly supported in order to provide a rnore subscribers to Politechs-on-EIES o comprehensive knowledge base frorn which Several members of the Arnerican So­ regulatory policy makers and legislators ciety for Cybernetics have been using rnay draw. For a copy of the program EIES since November 1977" ASC members announcement, write to have been encouraged to join EIES since Program Manager, Regulation the spring of 1980" Division of Applied Research National Science Foundation 1800 G Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20550

7

'r "' CALL FüR PAPERS: ASC FALL MEETING D.C. CHAPTER ACTIVITIES from Larry Richards Stuart has sent a number of flyers ad­ Annual Meeting of ASC vertising meetings of the DC chapter of 10/31 - 11/2 1981 ASC, held mostly last spring. These may Washington Hilton Hotel serve as inspiration to ASC-ers spread Washington, D.C. around elsewhere in the country (and world). The speakers and titles are as In 1981, the ASC plans to hold its first follows: annual meeting in a number of years. The meetingwill immediately follow the annual Heinz Von Foerster: "Constructivism: old meeting of the American Society for Infor­ roots, new fruits." mation Science and will be held in the same hotel. ASC invites all those in­ Williarn Gevarter: "New directions in space terested in cybernetics to participate in automa ti on." the meeting through paper presentations, panel discussions, or tutorials. The Stuart Umpleby: "A model of national theme of the meeting will be "The New development." Cybernetics"; one of the objectives of the meeting is to redefine the field of cyber­ Lewey 0. Gilstrap: "Where (or when) are netics and to provide a focus for the the household robots?" research efforts of the rejuvenated so­ ci ety and its membershi p. It i s expected R. C. Shreckengost: "Simulation in public that this new focus will be broader in administration: why and why not." scope than it has been in the past, encom­ passing all aspects of communication and Duane Stone: "Tvt-1ESHARE's AUGMENT system." regulation. Relevant topics for the meet­ ing include concepts (e.g. requisite r"aurice Kogon: "A world-vdde information variety, self-organization, self- and trade system ( WITS)." reference), methods (e.g. , constraint analysis, Spencer - Brown James Mosel: "Autotelics." mathematics), and applications (e.g. rohotics, problern solving, pattern recog- Heinz Von Foerster: "Advances in cybernet­ nition, remote sensing, computer graph­ ics: the first few decades." ics). Applications to all areas of human experience are encouraged. Please mail your suggestions, along with a short Fred Giessler has sent a .des:cription of abstract or description (100-200 words) recent and planned events. He notes that to: Jeremy Rifkin spoke in October on "Entropy: A New World View." Howard Hupe talked in Dr. Laurence D. Richards November about public service uses of the Dept. of Administrative Science video capabilities provided by satellites. Colby College Future speakers include Garrett Hardin, Waterville, Maine 04901 Richard Restak, Larry Fogel, and Jack Ford. The pace set by the D.C. chapter Abstracts should be received no later than appears to be breathtaking! April 30, 1981. For further infon~ation, contact Larry at (207) 873-1131 x 587 or Stu Umpleby at (202) 676-7530.

8

...~