American Society for Cybernetics
The American Society for Cybernetics was founded in 1964 in Washington, DC to encourage new developments in cybernetics as an inter-/trans-/meta-disciplinary field.
Ever since, it has remained at the forefront of cybernetic thinking and doing. Society members have made cybernetics central to their work in biology and the life sciences, the arts, medicine, therapy (psychological and social), mathematics, the physical sciences and engineering, design, management, and business. They have reached out to other societies and groups interested in similar areas and approaches. Remarkable people have joined and been recognized by us.
We understand cybernetics as being profoundly interested in and shaped by circularity, recursion, construction and reflexivity, and we constantly consider what cybernetic actions might be and when they should and should not be taken, continuing to consider how to behave in a cybernetic manner—without denying the value, on occasion, of behaving in more traditional ways. We recognize the centrality of the presence of the observer in observing, the speaker in speaking and the actor in acting.
We have recently extended the notion of conversation (and interaction) into a medium through which we organize and interact in our conferences, and in how we record them, as can be seen on their web sites.
Although our origin is in the USA, our membership is now worldwide. We are developing uses of new communication media to increase the benefits of this international community.
The American Society for Cybernetics is administered by an Executive Board comprised of elected officers. The officers are elected by the ASC membership to serve three-year terms.
During their term of office, the sitting Executive Board conducts their business mainly via the Internet, and via business meetings held in conjunction with major ASC conferences.
The American Society for Cybernetics is advised by a group of Trustees. Trustees connect current goals and actions with past intentions and traditions. They also suggest opportunities for future explorations.
Read more about ASC History
