To commemorate this occasion, the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) and the sponsors and organizers of the Understanding Complex Systems (UCS) symposium series will be holding a pair of parallel events during the period 11 - 15 May:

• The 2008 ASC Conference (11 - 15 May)

• The 8th Understanding Complex Systems Symposium (UCS 2008) (12 - 15 May)

Our organizations have established a reciprocal arrangement for attending both these conference events.

This conference is devoted to cybernetics in its full variety.

For each person who names themselves a cybernetician, an attendant "my cybernetics" is created, informed by her or his study, practice, and experience. Through conversation, "my cybernetics" joins the larger domain of cybernetics as it is studied, practiced, and experienced by other people who name themselves cyberneticians and thus create their own "my cybernetics". These interactions form "Our Cybernetics". During this conference we anticipate hearing many voices and ways of being, and the opportunity to observe the observing system we constitute.

In creating papers and presentations for the conference, we ask participants to tip their hat to our theme of "my cybernetics". Certainly whatever you do will be your cybernetics, but please include an extra loop of observation that examines your own work in the context of cybernetics in the large. And when you participate in the conference, keep examining the nature of cybernetics in relation to your own activity and the activity of others inside and outside cybernetics.

A Sampling of Cybernetics (to stimulate thoughts toward the 2008 Conference theme ...)

In the public eye cybernetics is often linked with origins in the the design of automated systems and the consequences of interactions of women/men and machines. Contemporary cybernetics began as an interdisciplinary study connecting the fields of control systems, electrical network theory, mathematical logic, stability in biological and engineering systems and neuroscience in the 1940's. Cybernetics expanded through the Macy conferences and other outlets to embrace social systems, Anthropology, general systems theory, psychology, architecture and design. Under the influence of Margaret Mead and Heinz von Foerster, cybernetics turned its light upon itself and became the cybernetics of cybernetics, the cybernetics of observing systems.

As we move back to specific cybernetic societies we find different lines of thought and exploration:

• The American Society for Cybernetics, closely allied with Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory has been concerned with the role of the observer in systems and the understanding of observing systems.

• Complex Systems Theory groups have emphasized the roles of mathematical modeling and the notion of emergent properties of systems in the presence of process, recursion, and feedback. There are many other viewpoints in this complex adventure in science and epistemology.

• Many other groups study cybernetics in their own way around the world.

For more background on cybernetics, see:

• http://www.asc-cybernetics.org
  (Check the various materials available in the 'Foundations' section)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics

• http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CYBSYSTH.html

• papers
• performances
• displays
• symposia
• workshops
• panels
• hosted conversations

• (Morning Options ... )

  7:30-8:00 Continental breakfast
  8:30-9:00 The Creative from the Receptive, the Receptive from the Creative

• (Morning Sessions ... )

  9:00-9:45 Susan Parenti

  9:45-10:30 Thomas Fischer

• 10:30-12:00 Reflections and Closing

• 12:00-1:00 Lunch

Klaus Krippendorff

Owing to an injury (broken foot), Klaus was not be able to join us at the 2008 ASC Conference.

The paper he'd prepared for presentation is available at:

• First Order Cybernetics: Regulation and Self-Organization

  http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/cybernetics/2006%20WMSCI%20tutorial%202.ppt

• Second Order Cybernetics: Cognition and Self-Reference

  http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/cybernetics/2006%20WMSCI%20tutorial%203.ppt

• Social Cybernetics: Reflexivity and Social Change

  http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/cybernetics/2006%20WMSCI%20tutorial%204.ppt

• An overview of the archives (e.g., ASC Archive; BCL Archive) associated with the ASC as an organization

• The archives dedicated to cybernetics thinkers (e.g., von Foerster, Pask) associated with the ASC

• The general theme of cybernetics' recorded 'corpus' (in various media)

• The status of BCL-produced artifacts (e.g., illustrative prototypes) as 'documentation' of cybernetics research

• Email and other communicative artifacts generated by ASC and the cybernetics community in general

The summary overview of the panelists' statements is available at:

During a 2-week period prior to the conference an online discussion exercise was held on the CYB-COALITION forum (Yahoo Groups). This online exercise was intended to set the stage for further discussions at the 2008 Conference. Results from the online exercise were made available to on-site attendees, who had the opportunity to make their own contributions during the course of the conference.

Each participant in the online discussion was asked to post responses to 3 focal points or issues. The collated contributions (subdivided with respect to the 3 focal points) are now available for review on the ASC website.

The focal topics (and links to the collated pre-conference results) are as follows:

1. How I Found Cybernetics (i.e., how I became acquainted and engaged with the field or its subject matter)

   http://asc-cybernetics.org/2008/MYCYB-1.htm

2. What Cybernetics Means to Me (i.e., what value or utility I ascribe to cybernetics in my personal and / or professional life)

   http://asc-cybernetics.org/2008/MYCYB-2.htm

3. Description of My Cybernetics (a statement describing cybernetics as you see it)

   http://asc-cybernetics.org/2008/MYCYB-3.htm

The collated contributions (subdivided with respect to the 3 focal points) are now available for review on the ASC website. You can access them by clicking on the hot-linked titles above.

Each participant in the on-site exercise (1 of 2) was asked to post responses to these 3 topics. The population of participants was then subdivided into 3 working groups, each of which took their individual statements, reviewed them, and collated them as they saw fit.

In the final on-site exercise (2 of 2), each participant was asked to post a new statement of 'my cybernetics' (cf. topic 3 of 3 above). This was intended to allow participants to make a new expression of 'my cybernetics' in light of their experiences and reflections at the conference.

Once these 'final' statements were posted, participants were asked to reivew the entire set. Each participant was asked to identify and describe 3 relationships discerned between his / her own 'my cybernetics' statement and the statement or statements of others in this session. For each such relationship, the attributor was asked to specify (in writing) both:

• The name(s) of the other participant(s) to whom he / she was attributing the relationship, and ...

• A characterization of the relationship itself (e.g., the theme or point upon which the cited contributions corresponded).

This generated a set of records comprised of:

• Each participant's 'closing' statement of 'my cybernetics'

• Named relationships between each participant's statement and up to 3 other statements.