Convention Report EditorialVon Foerster then suggests the development ofa sema tic Ievel of analysis of modcls. Stafford Beer, on a different approach, argues that computer models

PUBLISHED BY TIIE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS, VOLUME 111, NUMBER 4, DECEMBER, 1970

Editorial

The Newsletter will publish any letters addressed to the following topic Ed.

We are cyberneticists and we recognize "cyberne tics" when wc comc across it, but so far no one has defin ed "cyber-netics" so that academicians are able to specify a curriculum fo r it. Such is the thesis of this editorial : Th e ASC sho uld devise a curriculum for students majoring in cybernetics. lt should define the general principles to be included in such a curriculum, and then illustrate the appli-cation of these principles by reference to particular courses.

Cybernetics is the science of control of !arge systems. Heinz Von Foerster defines a !arge system as one in which "The accepted methods of solving sets o f first order differential equations Iead to solu-tions which are opaque." Von Foerster then suggests the development ofa sema-tic Ievel of analysis of modcls. Stafford Beer, o n a different approach, argues that computer models today do not really give us any close association with reality in !arge systems and to correct the Situation we should begin by first developing a theory of computer models.

This gives us two parts o f a curriculum - the theory and practice o f !arge systcm computer models, and the theory and practice of solutions of differential equa-ti o ns. Since both Beer's and Von Foerster's arguments are based on the inapplicability of such methods, any Cur-riculum must thirdly include adequate training for the rejection of well-tested methods.

Now comes the difficult part - what width of experience of complex systems should be included in a curriculum? Should business students only be con-cerned with business-type problems? Sho uld biology majors only be co ncerned wi th ecosystems? The answer would appear to be "no," sin ce a cybernetics curriculum which,(Continued on page 2)

NEVVSLEITER

POST-CONVENTION ISSUE

Convention Report

FOURTH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM HELD IN WASHINGTON

A convention must be ca lled a success when it breaks evcn fin anciall y, when some o f the papers given refer to, o r are built upon, work presented at previous meetings of the Spo nso ring society , and when the turn-out is the largest in several years. All of these conditions were met at the Fourth Annual Symposium of the Society, which was held in Washington on October 8 and 9. Equally important was the fact that five invited in te rnational speakers attended , but that they were balanced by many younger , previously u nknown scientists getting their first exposure within the ASC. Most of the attendees were able to go home fee ling that they had seen o ld friends again, transacted some business, atten ded sev-eral outstanding talks, gotten some new ideas, and been involved in the workings of a new society which is starting to gain some mo mentum in an exciting subject area.

The re was a qualifying opinion, how-ever, which should not go unrecorded. Each year the meetings are held in a ster-ile audi to rium far removcd from a sur-rounding environment which easily pro-motes individual discourse. All audito-riums are sterile , perhaps, but it seems that there are never amiable coffee shops, or pastoral enclaves where quiet talks can take place. Perhaps we just don't live a style of life which any Ionger can gener-a te enough demand for them. A high registration fee, coupled with an expen-sive hotel may dissuade many from com-ing. It certainly makes li fe difficult for the student attendees. Four parallel ses-sions are also hard to follow, especiaUy when they do no t adhere to their time schedules. The lecture format is a well-known method for one-sided dialogue. Certainly a cybernetics society can pro-mote interaction to a greater extent than it has so far managed to do. (Ta page 2)

Crayton Walker, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, UCLA, delivers his paper, "Steady-State Behavior in a Class of Camplex Systems."

DECEMBER 1970/2

Editorial (from page 1) was too specifically directed in its breadth of examples would end up as just a set of Operationsresearch adjuncts to present academic Sub-divisions. A better answer would be to attempt a maximum breadth o f experi-ence without such a width leading to an inadequate degree of depth.

The abovc discussion is nei ther definitive nor necessa rily complete. But the re is enough to make th e point. This news-letter could usefully accept t he function of a dialogue towards the d esign of a much needed cybe rnetics curriculum.

Alex S. Frase r

Personals

New Publications by Mem bers

Leonard C. Silvern has written a new book, "Principles of Computer - Assisted lnstru ction Systems," the six th book in the series Systems Engineering of Educa-tion, from Education and Training Con-sultants, Los Angeles.

Ed Dewan has a paper " Dynanuc Sta-bilization o f th e Van der Po l Equation ," coming in Proceedings o f the Symposium on Feedback and Dynamic Control of Plasmas.

University-ofCirrcinn11ti - On NSF Committee

Meeting The Institute of Manageme nt Seiences (TIMS) will ho ld its XVUI Internatio nal Meeting in Waslungton, D. C ., on March 23 - 25. Title of the meeting is "Interna-tional Horizons of Management Science." For m ore informa tio n co nta ct J ack Moshman , Moshman Associates, l nc. , 6400 Goldsboro Road, Washington, D. C. 20034. (202) 229-3000.

Convention Report Awards and Federation

(Continued from page 1)

The invited speakers and sessio n chair-men must be given great credit. Meredith Thring, Gordon Pask , R oss Ashby, Heinz-Von Foerster, Julian Bigelow and Stanley Auerbach se t the tone for the whole con-ference. Stafford Beer, in his keynote address , challenged all to join in the solu-tions of the problems of mankind. He provided a framework for the understand-ing which will be needed, and titled his talk " The Liberty Machine." It sh ould be required reading for anyone who still has that curious trait called "concern." Com-ing issues o f The Journal will carry the many high quality presented papers. They will prove to be a continuing treat until next year's conference.

Among the highlights: lt was decided at one of the noon lunchea ns that the ASC would participate in the establishing of a loose international federation between the different national and inter-

Myron Coler and Larry Fogel have been invited to se rve on the Subcommittee on Communication and Education for the NSF-sponsored National Institute of Ecology.

Prexy Gives Talk

Carl Hammer, ASC Presiden t , addressed the fifth annual conference of t he Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Society in October in London. Also o n the program were Frank George and Stafford Beer.

national cybernetic groups. Ross Ashby and Stafford Beer will continue negotiat-ing the topic with tho.sc o ther--societies who have shown interest. About 125 members voted, with almost no dissenting votes.

The Wiener Medals we re not awarded at the conference as has been the c ustom in the past. The committee decided that the two day time which they had for consideration was too sho rt , and that a better choice could be made by waiting until year's end . The 1970 award will be made at next year's symposium. Stafford Beer was give n th e fir s t Warren M cCullough Memorial Plaque, a new award c rea ted in memory of our ASC founder and first President. Heinz Von Foerster, in maki.ng the presentation stated: " His numerous accomplishments are well-known to all of us and of such excellence that the choice was unani-mous.

Society Co-Sponsors Meeting The American Society for Cybernetics will join with the Institute of Manage-ment Sciences, the Ame rican Society for Public Administ ration, and the Opera-tions Research Society of America, under the primary sponsorslu p of the National Bureau of Standards, to hold a joint meeting in Gaithersburg, Maryland , May 24- 26, 197 1. Title of the conference is The Fourth J oint Meeting of Operations Researchcrs in the Federal Government and the Private Research Sector. Also cooperating are the Associatio n for Com-puting Machinery, and the Mathematical AssDciat1on of--America.

For further info rmatio n, write or phone: Dr. Roy 1-lerrmann , Department of Management Science, Hall of Gove rn-ment - Room l 03, The George Washing-ton University, Washington, D. C., 20006. (202) 676-6072.

OFFICERS Carl Hammer - Presidcn t Edmond M. Dewan - Vice Presiden t, Awards

Program Roy Herrmann - Vice Presiden t, Symposia and

Programs Douglas E. Knigltt - Vice Presiden t, Publi-

cations and Public Affairs 01arles P. Lecltt - Vice President, Inte rnationa l

Rela tions William C. Moore Vicc President, Project

Development A. Brickman Brown - Treasurer Lewey 0. Gilstrap, Jr. - Secretary

DIRECTORS Heinz vo11 Foerster Chairman John J. Ford - Executive Director Lawrence J. Fogel - Immedia te Past President Sau/ Amarel Alexander Fraser Harold K. Hughes George T. Jacobi Douglas E. Knight Robert Pos Herben 1\1. Robinson Stephen 1-. Sherwood

EDITOR Jolzn D. White - Honeywcll , lnc., 2701 rourth

Avenue South , Min neapo li s, Min-nesota 55408.

The ASC NEWSLETTER is published four times a ycar by the American Society for Cyberne tics, c/o Dr. Carl Hammer, 2121 Wis-consin Avenue N.W., Washington , D. C. 20007, for ASC members. Single copies free. Annual dues are $ 15 for mcmbers and $5 fo r student members.

Prlnted in U. S. A . by MCBA

Journal of Cybernetics

Scripta Publishing Corporation has an-nounced a new "essential serics in elec-tronics and cybernetics." This series will include the Journal of Cybernetics, which in part will contain the transactions of the American Society for Cybernetics, along with o th er important contributions in the information and control sciences. Four issues of the journal are anticipated each year, totaling about 600 pages. The first issue should arrive some time in the first quarter of 1971.

The journal will publish Substa ntive original papers in -the theory of !arge purposive interacting systems, computers and automata, applied mathematics, arti-ficial in telligence, cybernetic devices, robotics, and game and information theories. lt will also feature important contributions on applications of cyber-netics (specifically, computer science) to problems of society, medicine, and bi-o logy, as weil as other art icles in which the use of mathematical modeling and computer simulation illurninates analogies betwcen man and machine. Each issue of the journal will include a special Trans-lation Supplement designed to acquaint English-speaking scientists with major papers o riginally published in other Janguages.

Forthcoming afferings tobe published include: "A Time for the Future ," by Edward E. David , Jr. , scie nce advisor to President Nixon; "The Organization of

Action-Oriented Memory for a Perceiving System: The Basic Model," by Michael A. Arbib, University of Massachusetts, and R.ichard L. Didday, Colorade State Uni-versity; "Strategie Compromise and Modeling in Automatie Recognition of Continuous Speech; an Hierarchical Ap-proach," by N. Rex Down and Charles C. Tappert, lßM Corporation; " Design of Computerized Pattern Recognition Systems and Some Comparison to Human Pattern Recognjtion," by Earl E. Gose, University of l llinois; "Theory of Tasks: Organization of Heirarchical Hybrid Con-tra! Systems," by Pcter H. Green , Uni-versity ofChicago; "Embedding Fields: A Mathe matical Concept for Machine Learning with Applicat ions to Data," by Stephan Grossberg, MIT; "Engineering Robotics: Results on Autonomaus Auto-matons," by Louis L. Sutro, MIT .

Some of the translated papers include: "A Pair Algebra over a Free Automaton ," by Teruaki Aizawa, NHK Technical Re-search Laboratories, Tokyo; " Representa-bility in Det e rministic Multi-Tape Automata ," by A. Y. Makarevskiy, Insti-tute o f Engineering Cybernetics, Moscow; "Synthesis of an Automaton ßased on a Set of Experiments," by M. A. Spivak, University of Saratov; and "Minimizing the Number of States in a Sequential Machine with 'Don't Care' Conditions," by Naoki Yamabe, Kenichj Taneguchi, and Tadao Kasami , Osaka University.

Keynoter Stafford Beer delivers his address "The Liberty Machine," at the Fourth Annual Symposium of the ASC. To the left is Julian Bigelow, and on the right is Gordon Pask.

ASC NEWSLEITER/3

Letters

To the Editor:

Everyone knows that the whole nation is hurting financially; whether we are in academia, indu stry, or gove rnment , we all feel the pinch. The problems of makmg a living, traveling to the ASC Symposium or even paying dues, however, are not as great , as serious, or as tragic as the dis-so! u tion of organizations and teams which is also taking place. While it may take months, or even a year o r two, to find new jobs for the people displaced, to rebuild teams, groups and organizations will certainly take many years if not dec-ades. l am certain that such damage has already been done, and some of it may bc irreversible. Members of the ASC have been among . the Ieaders in science and industry for some time; are we about to abandon that leadership?

As l recall , the word ecology was dis-cussed at the 1968 meeting of our society - it is now in everyl;>ody's month. Yet, who cares about people - ecology, the inte raction , communication and contro l among them? What is the ASC going to do, in light of current trends, that will have an influence on the Situa tion?

Yours truly ,

S. L. Sherwood, M.D. Chairman, ASC Membership

Coming Events

January 21 - 25

Annual Meeting, American Mathematical Society and Mathematical Association of America, Atlantic City, N. J ., contact : Dr. Gordon Walker, American Mathemati-cal Society, P.O. Box 6248, Providence, Rhode Island, 02904.

March 22 - 24

Second Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation, Association for Computing Machinery, Los Angeles. Con-tact Dr. R. G. Tobey, Applied Mathema-tics Division, Argonne National Labora-tory , 9700 S. Cass Ave., Argonne, Illinois, 60439.

DECEMBER 1970/4

Chapter News Washington Chapter

Th e ASC Wa shington Chapter has arranged a coordinated series of talks directed toward man in social systems. The speakers will make their presen ta-tions immediately following lunch, begin-ning at 12:00 noon at Blackie's House of Beef Restaurant , 22nd and M Streets W., Washington, D. C. Travelers and others wishing to altend please notify Lewey Gilstrap at 893-5450 before noon on the Tuesday preceeding the meeting.

Featured speakers and dates are:

Dec. I 0, 1970 - ''An Approach to a Cybernetic Model of Man for Use in Societal Systems Simulations," by William B. Gevarter.

Jan. 14, 1971 - "Social System Simula-tion," by Peter House.

Feb.19, 197 1 - "Technological Fore-casting," by Carl Hammer.

Mar. 18, 197 1 - "An Empirie Model of the Development of a R egion," by J ohn McLain.

Apr. 15, 197 1 - "Cybernetics in lnter-national Relations", by John Ford.

May 13, 1971 - "Cybernetics and the Control · of Economic Systems" , by Roy Herrmann.

~ NEWSETTER

American Society for Cybernetics

212 1 Wisconsin Avenue N.W. Washington, D. C. 20007

Form 3579 Requested

Humberto Maturano speaks before a plenary session of the Fourth A1111Ual ASC Symposium.

Herb Robinson, ASC Director, and Ed Dewan, ASC Awards Vice President, chat with Julian Bigelow who was Chairman of the session on Cybernetics and Public Policy.

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