NSwSLETTeR June 1996 vol. 15, no. 2 1ruo. +r; 2600 copies
Editor-in-Chief: Gerhard Chroust c/o Systemtechnik und Automation, Johannes Kepler University Linz, 4040 LinzlAustria, e-mail: CHROUSToSEA.UNI-LlNZ.AC.AT, Tel:+43-732-2468-865, Fax:+43-732-2468-878
www-hom e pa ge : http ://www. sea. u n i -l i nz. ac. aVif s r/
as a liaison to the Committee. The definition of Dear fo:alers! the Committees'tasks comprised the agenda for In tftis AQusbtter we report ofl tfu Eoarf fl[eeting of tfu the Saturday Strategy meeting (April 13). ITSR, an[ tfu L996 ftucfi[ Conztersation. Eacfi of tfitse eaents fias sfioum fiou a[iue yfu IySKis and fiis ncw ideas an[ initiatirtes. We ako fia[ a crtance to present tfu IFSKto tfu participants of tfu Lfr[CS*Congrus in Aienna, giaing w more pu1fbity.
Dtu to some probbms concerning *offrry I cou[[ not foep tfu,tiWW-page of tfu lfS\up-to-[ate, 6ut tftis zui[[ soon 6e atnende[. to aooid furtfur pro1fems t zuiff Jrom flozl otl put tfiz lfSK-Akus[ettef on. our flP-seraer ufiicrt a[bws it to 6e doumba[ed. It is a'lilOKD 6.0- document. \eeptttg tfu IfSkfi&ustetar as a"ltL,l4ttril-page cawed too nuch ffirt. I sti[[ fiope tfiat tfris sentke is usefuf to you and remain yours sitrcere[u As we enter into a new phase of our joint work, Qerfiarl Cfiroust we should remind ourselves that we can only Sy s temtecfinifrun[ Automation build on the pioneering work accomplished by Jofiannes Kepfer t]niztersitrl Liru, 4040 Liru, Awtria those who established and guided us through the earlier years of IFSR. At the meeting we paid special tribute to Robert Trappl, George Klir, Tne ApRIU THE MeeIrucS oF Gerrit Brokstra, and Gerhard de Zeeuw, Past IFSR Presidents of IFSR. We welcomed Prof. Dr. Robert Trappl as Chair of the newly established Bela H. Banathy IFSR Advisory Board. Your Executive Committee is most appreciative At the Board meeting we reported on the new and is encouraged by the fine participation at the status of Systems Research, the Newsletter, April Board meeting and, most significantly, the membership development, the IFSR Book willingness ol our member organizations to work Series, the Fuschl Conversations, the on the goals of IFSR. For some member this sponsorship of the Ashby lectures and the meeting was their first. We welcomed the EMCSR meeting, and a sponsored research Presidents of the Korean, Polish and Slovenian project. We now add to these a set of tasks in Systems Societies and the representative of the which the Standing Committees are engaged. Italian Society. The Slovenian Systems Society Our overall aim - shared with all member and the lnstituto Andino de Sistemas of Peru societies - is to empower IFSR to become a were admitted as new members. dynamic living and creative Federation, which Representatives of several potential new will attain its purposes and make contributions to member organizations were also present. this member organization and the global The Board has resolved to engage in joint action systems community. in the carrying out of the purposes of IFSR by The Board unanimously voted for an additional establishing a Standing Committee for each of two years' term for members of the Executive the IFSR purposes. Several member organi- Committee. Members of the Committee zations have already appointed representatives expressed their appreciation of the Board's to the Committees. The Committees will be self- confidence and pledged their continuing services organized and will proceed with their work. A to the Federation. member of the Executive Committee will serve OLD MEMORIES A PosrscRrPT ro Keruruern BouLDTNG Ernst von Glaserfeld Scientific Reasoning Research lnstitute The University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003, USA As participant in the Symposium on the General Margareth Mead Systems Paradigm at the Annual Meeting of the lf we think of the moon as the wife of the sun American Association for the Advancement of A proper astronomy never gets done Science, Denver (Colorado), February 1977, But think of your wife as kind of moon, Kenneth Boulding seemed to be taking copious You can bet Dr.Freud that you'll be divorced soon. notes while the speakers of the symposium A fact that creates a wide difference of views presented their pieces. Then, during the ls that women feed babies and men seldom do. subsequent discussion, he got up and with his Miller inimitable stammer read his comments from two lf-science is seen as a big living system handwritten pages. They were in the form of a It comes from the cells, and unless we have satirical poem. After the session, I fortunately missed'em secured a copy of the manuscript. To me this is We find 19 pieces that come right up through another demonstration of Boulding's remarkable And finally end up in me and in you. quickness of wit and intellectual horizon. The nine information types tie us together And help us explain both the why and the whether And so science fruits into succulent kernels Ernst Glasersfeld That end up as papers in technicaljournals From Plato Boulding philosophers sweat to And from these a sweet emanation arises About how much reality images net. That finally falls out as big Nobel prizes. So we roundabout roundabout roundabout go me (Kenneth Boulding) On how do we know that we know that we know. And in between long philosophicalpauses A scientist caught out in telling of lies We think about causes of causes of causes Will never get back in the club till he dies guilty But you stand in a great intellectual bog And a scientist of mishandling data lf you cannot distinguish a leaf from a frog. Will be found out in time by some dull replicator. And when I look into a mirror at me And so by the shaving of error, in sooth, left percentage I cannot experience the thing that I see What's has a large of truth. So nothing of this makes a great deal of sense Without the new logic of self reference. Joseph Goguen i:r\F Itra l-o iio-:., *i ,f, r,l.: i,.r,nuvr :.rF Ethnomethodology hopef ully f its ;lbl.-= i.,-- ,...r.j. ' The problem of subjective objective splits. rn^ '^lr.l ,*i-*t.iu tr+ , .{ rrrol ,l r C -r rf,# J lf we listen for ever to talk that is taped We finally catch things that might have escaped. !,r L+ 611..i..1..i nr,l*/..[n"g1- *,.a.i^L.rt 3a But if I become what I partially see b,r. (.6*r ,lo ,^t- I worry about what has happened to me. drq^, tl.rf r* 1(,"*,, [1f*,;/*,"+ Francisco Varela /'.v[,.^,oti*,r* i,.rrl The world that is seen in the eye of a frog |r^,tor.j"...i,.i [uuru ls different f.rom that seen by man or by dog LJ+ flr'([ T -!uri a^,r,eJ ,jl fqrrldj o d*dicS But any old image will lead to survival I just I lf each will behave as its rival fioif1r*'Xt',.,^ a ,.,,i,1 .rJ.jj,c3-t1A I b,3 And so we can prove with experiments neat J,f,,rq.-ll r That kittens can see with the soles of their feet. fi,trr,....*if L ,- ,'-#h". -Fl So no matter what glasses we wear, we will train *a,[ *rLr* irgr( ,01!t., Ourselfs to be King of a Knowledge Domain f, r+ry-rry a-1- q-€- And knowledge will mostly turn out to be crap Unless we can learn how to walk on our map. Boulding's original manuscript (on Glasefeld) GORDON PASK fi928 TO 1996 Ranulph Glanville Portsmouth School of Architecture Portsmouth, U.K much have equaled Noel Coward). Drama Gordon Pask, who was born on June 28, 1928, to was a concept central to both Pask's life and his died at the London Clinic on March 29th, after a work. ln this vein, he was the first to assed that long and painful illness. With his death, computing is-like drama-a medium, not a tool. Cybernetics has lost not only one of its earliest and most profound and original masters, but one At a young age, Pask was already accepted as of the characters who continued to give it color in both mascot and master of the emerging a gray world. He is survived by his wife, discipline Cybernetics. He impressed Wiener, Elizabeth who married him in 1956, two McCulloch, Flosenblueth, Bateson and Mead daughters, Amanda (and her husband Jonathan) and became deeply committed to the insights of and Hermione, and a grandson, Nicholas, as Heinz von Foerster (who he called his mentor, well as many students, friends and and for whose others whose lives he deeply Festschrift he wrote touched. his last paper). He began his work in His early life was marked by learning (he detested difference. A sickly child born 20 of years after his nearest sibling to the notion lnstruction, Computer Mary Pask and her fruit importer Aided or not) and in husband Percy, he was not the creation of trans- expected to survive. This early conventional concepts practice in survival ultimately of what computation stood him in good stead, for at the might be about. He end of his life, he continued to developed hydraulic amaze his doctors, friends and Gordon Pask with F. Pichler and chemical family with his ability to remain alive. As a computers. He concerned himself (long before frequently bed-bound child, his education-and current fashion) with questions of his world-were largely self created. (A the consciousness in machine embodiments. continuing trace of this was the food he always left on his plate for the fairies who had been his And he produced his remarkable "Conversation childhood companions). Already and Theory" to put forward and develop his position. precociously qualified as a mining engineer, he Conversation Theory is a constructivist, relativist went up to Cambridge to study medicine theory based in the understanding that each (eventually becoming a licensed practitioner in student must accept responsibility for his own Tennessee), but rapidly moved into other areas. learning, that his understanding is uniquely his, He met his lifelong colleague Robin McKinnon- and that such understandings are communicable Wood (1931 to 1995) with whom he founded his and learnable (only) through conversation. He company "System Research" (the singularity developed these ideas in numerous learning was crucial) and they began building machines environments, and through their ramifications in, and theories. for instance, how matter to be learnt should be structured and differences in how we choose to Pask and McKinnon-Wood, together with some learn (learning styles). He also saw clearly the colleagues, are responsible for many develop- limitations of his initial approach, and attempted ments in computing, including the creation of the to generalize Conversation Theory. Firstly, by first self-adapting program (SAKI), a basis for all considering the conversation as pan of a typing tutors and the first mechanical "agent gigantic and endless continuum of interaction provocateur" (MusiColour). This latter, which (life) - the lnteraction of Actors Theory - and reacted to music by proposing patterns of light secondly thro_ugh the generalization of structur- intended to develop.the musical discourse with ing rules the modification of bodies ol topics the musicians, clearly indicates two other of lor to be learnt. Pask's delights: his insistence he was an artist, and his fascination with the theater, drama and Unfortunately, his voluminous writings are often nightclubs, made constantly apparent through hard to understand. He could not always bear in his choice of "uniform". He drew charmingly, and mind the limitations of others. He wrote with an wrote lyrics (he always said he would have given intensity of concentration that was awe-inspiring, oI, more often, a need to incorporate intellectual home became the Architectural (adumbrate) as much as possible withrn his own Association in London. scheme. Often, he tried to tell us too much and There is no adequate label for a polymath such what he was telling us was too far ahead of us. as Gordon Pask. But if he had had to choose one word, it would have been "cybernetician". He He was awarded the first D. Sc. from the Open was a passionately convinced cybernetician, for University for his contribution to Educational whom Cybernetics was one of the three or four Technology, and in 1995 a Sc. D. by Downing, really great insights of the twentieth century, and his old Cambridge college, in recognition of his to which he remained true throughout his life. He research and his contributions to science. He lived by this creed, externalizing and examining was an Honorary Member of the Austrian as much as he could of the regulation of his self, Society of Cybernetic Studies. through the external modification of his moods He was deeply attached, and loyal, to his friends and nervous f unctioning, to the theoretica! and, pafticularly, to his students. At his best, he consideration of how humans can be together, was an amazing teacher, capable of inspiring a conversation. belief in self and in standards that far exceeded Cybernetics and Human Knowing, vol. 3 no 4, what the student had previously anticipated, Systems Research vol. 10 (1993) no 3. conjuring deep new insights. He held full WWW : http : //www. ve n u s. co. u Mg o rdo n p as l
. General Principles for the Design of Socio- GorurenENcE Reponrs Technical Systems The 1996 Fuschl Conversation . Education and Societal Development April 15-19, 1996 By this fall, members organizations will receive the edited team repofts. The comprehensive proceedings of the conversation will be available from the IFSR office at production cost plus mailing before the end of the year. The Fuschl Conversations look back at a long history: The first research conversation was held in April 1982, when the leadership groups of the three IFSR funding organizations met and developed the guiding principles of the research conversation idea. Since that time Fuschl Conversations where held bi-annually, following the European Meetings of Cybernetics and Systems Research. These Conversations are Fuschl - our hosts: Albert and Johanna Ferstl one of the key programs of IFSR. From April 14 to 19, 1996 a group of systems The concept of the "Fuschl Conversation" has and cybernetics scholars from eleven countries spread beyond the boundaries of Austria. came to Fuschl am See, Austria, to pafticipate in Fuschl-type research conversations have taken a research conversation. Their conversation place in Crete (2), England (1), Finland (1), focused cn the question: 'How can we advance Greece (1) , Hungary (1), and the US, annually systems science and how can we use the since 1989. These meetings are sponsored insights we gained from it in order to improve the locally or regionally. During the next two years human condition?' Participants used the research conversations are scheduled in disciplined inquiry of the conversation method to Greece, ltaly, Japan, USA. The program of the focus on the following themes: 1998 Fuschl Conversation will be announced in r Enhancing Systems Design Practice through the next IFSR Newsletter. creative synergy Participation is 'by invitation only'. Participation conrenENcE Atttrtout|CEMENTS needs preparation and early commitment. Research Teams (and coordinators): For contacts and information see Calendar of Events A: Exploring Conditions for Transcendence in lnternet in Medicine Social Systems Design.- (Dale Avers) October 14-17, 1996 B: Conversation as Methodology.- (Arne Collen) Brighton, United Kingdom C: Simulosophy.- (Ted Frick) MEDNET 96 is the European Congress of the D: Building a Design Culture Through lnternet in Medicine. The aims of the conference Evolutionary Learning Communities (ELC's). - (Alexander are to bring together researchers, developers Laszlo) and users involved in the application of the E: Evaluating System Designs.- (Lynn Jenkins) lnternet in medicine. lt will provide a forum for F: Societal Design.-: (Bela Hl Banathy) (Bela those interested in exploring the role of the G: to be announced.- Antal Banathy) lnternet in medicine, to present research, H: lSl Round Table or Town Meeting.- (Sue discuss developments, attend tutorials, Gabriele, Ted Ferguson) workshops and panel discussions. A virtual medical conference will be held on the World- ISSS-Conference 1996 Wide-Web during the Congress. Systems Thinking, Globalization of Contributions are invited in the form of paper Knowledge, and Communitarian Ethics presentations, workshops, tutorials, posters on 17-20 Sept 1996 areas which lnternet exerting an all in is Budpest, Hungary influence medicine and medical science. on 1. Application of Systems to Development ol Virtual posters on all areas of medicine are also Social Science Research welcome for the viftual medical conference. 1) Epistemology of Natural Sciences and Topics will include: Scientific Analysis of Social Phenomena . Access to lnformation 2l Methodological Bridge between Systems . Authoring Environments . Sciences and Social Science Research Business and Marketing 3) Dynamic Model for the Analysis of Social . Clinical and Non-Clinical Applications System . CommercialUse 2. Recent Development of Systems Sciences . Digital Libraries and Applied Research . ElectronicPublishing 1) Chaos, Order, Non-equilibrium o Ethical lssues Thermodynamics and Complex System . lnformation Policies and Management 2\ Self-Organizing System and Complex . Medical Education Biological, Physical and Evolutionary Theory . Network Standards 3) Self-Organizing System and Macro-Micro . Regulations and Politics Theory of Social/Biological System . Security 4) Entropy as Evolution and Historical . Telemedicine Development o Enhanced and Virtual Reality in Medicine 3. Systems Sciences and Prediction of Technotogical Society in 21d Century Abstracts (max. 200 words) should be sent to 1) Development of lndustrial Technology and http://www. mednet. org. u k/medneUmed net. htm Globalization of Systems Sciences Accepted abstracts will be published on CD- 2) lnnovation in lnformation Technology and ROM and in a conference supplement to the Structural Change of Economic System Journal of Medical lnformatics. Outstanding 3) Development of lnformation Technology and papers will be invited for publication in full in the Structural Change in Society Journal of Medical lnformatics. 4) The Long Term Prediction of Structural The Congress will also feature a major Change in lnformation Society commercial exhibition. 5) Transformaiion Mechanism of lndustrial Organization in lnformation Society 6) The lmpacts of lnformation Technology on Eight lnternat. Conversation Korean Economy and Social Structure on the Design of Social Systems 4. Globalization of Systems Science Knowledge Nov.2-7,1996 1) Development of Educational System and lnnovative Designing lnformation Society Asilomar, USA in 2\ Systematic Linkage between Educational System and Curriculum 3) Systematic Utilization of Research lnformation . Concepts and Models for the Architectural in Systems Sciences and System Level of Complex Systems Designing for Global Cooperation . Advancements in Engineering Environments 4) Diffusion of Systems Knowledge, and Micro- . Complex Models and Simulation electronic networks among Nations . CAST in Automation and Control . Applications in Environmental and Energy EUROCAST'g7 Systems Sth lnt. Conf. on Computer Aided The conference is organized by the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Instituto and Systems Theory Technology Tecnologico de Canarias and the Johannes Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Kepler Universitdt Linz, lnstitute of Systems Feb.23-28,1997 Sciences. CAST research has become rather stable in the General Chairman: Prof. Roberto Moreno-D[az sense that the common paradigms to be followed are today generally accepted by Program Chairman: Prof. Franz Pichler interested groups. Following the 1996 lnnbruck Attendance is limited and early registration is advisable conference, the next conference will be specially concerned with Systems Theory and CAST as related to:
3. Perception and memorization of duration NEwS FROM THE BOOK MARKET 4. Perception and apprehension with perfect memorization, sets of instants of consciousness. Cognition et Systdme 5. Perception of duration with per{ect memory. (Essai d'Epist6mo-Prax6ologie) 6. Perceived and memorized multidimensional time (Cognition and System, an Essay in Epistemo-Praxiology) 7. Perception of the state of a dynamic system Robert Vall6e Chapter 4. Perception, Decision, Action and (in French) " Ep i ste mo - P raxi o I ogy" Along the lines of systems theory and 1, Decisional chain and "pragmatic operator" cybernetics, a subjective epistemology, based 2. System, environment, the "epistemo-praxiological" on the limitations of cognition is presented and loop applied to the case of multidimensional 3. Subject and object, subject and subject perception and memorization, in particular of 4. Subjects, objects, recurrent and differentialcases time. lt is completed by a praxiology, also 5. Heinz von Fdrster and Jean Piaget preceding subjectively due to the imperfections of the 6. Comparison of viewpoints capacities of decision and effection. A synthesis 7. "Epistemo-praxiology" (480 of these two approaches of cognition and action L'lnterdisciplinaire rue de la Glande, F-69760 Limonest, fax: +33-78 64 93 07, 136 pages, 195 FF is realized through the feedback of the results of action to the objects of perception, giving rise to an "espistemo-praxiology" where cognition and Encyclopedia action are linked in an indissoluble way. of World Problems and Human Potential Chapter 1. Systems Theory And Cybernetics Union of lnternational Associations 1. Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Nobert Wiener etc. Volume 1: World Problems 2. About some concepts of systems theory 1200p, 9800 problems, DM 548 3. Dynamic systems Volume 2: Human Potential 4. "Cybernetical systems" 7700 entries, DM 548 Chapter 2. Perception And Epistemology Volume 3: Actions, Strategies, Solutions 1. Observational chain 29000 strategies, DM 548 2. "Observation operato/' and indisce rnability also available on CD-ROM 3. Completion and noise U nion of I nternational Associations, 4. "lnverse transfe/' paradigm rue Wasfington 40, B-1050 Brussels, 5. Mathematical epistemology fax: +(322) 64605 25, email: [email protected] Chapter 3. Multidimensional Perception 1. The matrix paradigm 2. Multidimensional perception and memorization N ews News
f rom f rom the the
IFS R I FSR
IFSR,S OrnCenS REELECTED! Dear Members! Vienna, April 11, 1996 I want to e1press my sincere tfranfu tfu uote o- for ln its Board Meeting on April 11, 1996 the Board confi[ence at tfu Eoarl Meeting. I fiope I rai[[ 6e a|[e to of the IFSR re-elected the following officers of Lrnproae my seruices. As wua[ I fiaae to asfrfor your furtfur the IFSR: unlerstan[ing, tfiat somttimts tfie IFSK agenda items get President: Bela H. Banathy, fekye[ fiw a otfur urgent m.otters at my office, As you fiaue 25781 Morse Drive, Carmel, seen our reports, IFSKb 1ecoming more enterprising from CA. 93923 USA, eaery year - so fu[p w a&ieue our goak 6y actiae[y worftng IfS\! tel/fax +1 408-625-31 78 for e-mail: BHBANATHY @ aol.com We zttiff finzte arutfur meeting of tfu F-4uutizte Committee on Vice-President Michael C. Jackson Satur[ay, Sep, 21-, 1996 in Eu[aput, fotbwing tfu ISSS United Kingdom Systems Society, Confererce. Any moteia[ ufiicrt reacfies me Sefore Se?t. 12, University of Humberside, rui[[ 6e discrusel at tfu meeting, you ntay ako contact Ee[a Cottinghan Road, Hull HUO 7RT, U.K Earutfiy. tel: +44 1482 440550 Ext.3720 fax:+44 1482 445715 l{oping for a furtfur fruitfut ammunication email: dgibbs @ humber.ac.uk Qerfrarl Secretary/Treasuren Gerhard Chroust, Systemtechnik und Automation The Spanish Society General Systems of Kepler University Linz, A-4040 Linz, Austria (SESGE) proudly announces its home page: tel: +43 7322468 866 uv.es/ fax: +43 7322468 878 email:chroust @ sea.uni-linz.ac.at
WHAT,S NEw IN (leeo) "sysrEMS RESEARCH,,? ,,":#;#:or vol' 13' no' 2 The quarterry systems Research, the officiar journar D' Brow.n:The Essence of the'Fifth Discipline' of the |FSR,-is pubtished by John witey and sons. s. Gabriele:A systems Analysis of 'Twelve- Papers for publication and subscription requests Step'Meetings should be sent to: R. Fivaz: Ergodic Theory of Communications Professor M.C. Jackson G. Dyer: Enthalpy as Metaphor U niversity of H umberside Nofes And lnsights Cottingham Road E. Herrscher: Agenda Hull. HU6 7RT, United Kingdom G. Gonzales: Hope Buildings Systems tel: +44 1482 440550 Ext.3720 R. Hornsby: Metaphors fax: +44 1482 445715 IMPRESSUM: Mediuminhaber, Herausgeber, Satz und Contents of vol. 13, no. 3 (1996) Layout: Int. Federation for Systems Research Special lssue on the work of Heinz von Foerster Fiir den Inhalt verantwortlich: Prof. G. Chroust, Kepler (Editor: Universifit Linz. 4040 Linz, Druck: Druckerei Bad Ranulph Glanville) Leonfelden Gmb.H. & Co. KG, Bad Leonfelden NewSLETTeR
Calendar of Events litle Date and Place Further lnformation Abbreviations: CfP, CfA: Call f.Papers/Abstract. FP: Final Paoer due.
rVorld Congres of Systems and Cybernetics \ug. 26-31, 1 996, Ecological University in Bucharest, 4-6 Dem I
ISSS-Conference 1996 1 7-20 Sept 1 996 Harold Linstone,c/o lnt. Society for the Systems
154T'96 18th lnternat. Scientific School on Sept 24-29, 1 996 Mieczyslaw Bazewicz Systems Inquiry, lnformation Systems And Wroclaw, Poland Technical University of Wroclaw Technology CfA: May 15, 1996 50-370 WROCLAW, POLAND, tel: (48-71)
3rd Systems Science European Congress 1 -4 Oct. 1996 C.E.S 3, -afcetm 156 Bd. Pereire, F-75017 Paris, Rome tel: +33 (1) 47 66 29 19, fax:: +33 (1) 42 67 93 12 OfP: expired 1st ltalian lSl Conversions 7-11 Oct, '1996 Prof. Eliano Pessa, Univ. La Sapienza, Dept. Rome Psychology, via dei Marsi 78, l-001O0-Roma,, tel: +39 6 499 1 7631 . fax: +39 6 445 1 667 '1996 IEEE lnt. Conference on Systems, Man and Oct.14-17,1996 Jian Chen, School of Economics and Management, Cybernetics: 'lnformation, lntelligence and Berjing (China) Isinghua Univ., Beijing 100084, China, tel. (8610) Svstems