vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (04/11/89)
CALL FOR PAPERS
the 1989 Meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics,
in Virginia Beach, Virginia on 9-12 November.
Pre-Conference Tutorial: 8 November.
Extensively, cybernetics can be defined by the connections it evokes.
Modern cybernetics was born forty years ago in a series of intense,
interdisciplinary conferences on "circular causal and feedback
mechanisms" which drew on anthropology, electrical engineering,
psychology, biology, and philosophy, among many other fields. From the
conversations and controversies that ensued arose the ideas of
organizational closure, self-reference, attractrs, and other recognitions
of essential circularities in complex systems. Their influence has been
felt in areas as diverse as immunology and political science, family
therapy and information systems, education and ethics.
Intensively, cybernetics could be defined as the search for "those notions
which perade all purpive bhavior and all understanding of our world" ,
as Warren McCulloch wrote of those early discussions, and the concern
with the tenability and consequences of ou conceptions of kowing,
causality, and the laws of nature.
The challenge and excitement of cybernetics lies in the difference
between these two definitions, and the bond. It is to go beyond
philosophizing and tool-building alike, to embrace distinction, not be
engulfed by it, and to let creativity and rigor inform not exclude one
another.
These are the concerns of the conference:
1. What questions does a cybernetician ask, and how
are these understood by workers in other fields?
2. What are the lessons of more recent connections for
understanding understanding?
3. What social and scientific processes underlie
change (or progress?) in cybernetics as a field?
They will be articulated in a series of plenary sessions on:
Self-organization, computer technology, & management,
The phenomena of language in the machine, animal, & organization,
Modeling as definition, reflection, & intervention,
The social construction of knowledge, and
Learning & helping.
PROCESS. To explore connecting in conversation, the conference will
include special issue seminars that will consider a particular topic in
greater depth and will include a packet of readings to be mailed to
participants before the conference; an ongoing participatory laboratory,
stocked with mechanical and electronic tools for modeling,
experimentation, and expression; "Questions of Cybernetics", a special full
day pre-conference tutorial, linked from the conference to sites around the
country by interactive television; and a cybernetics fair and other
unscheduled time in which to pursue the conversations and respond to the
cncrns hat arise during the conference.
PROGRAM. To encourage and faciliate preparation on the part of
presenters and other participants, we will publish a Conference Program,
including abstracts for each presentation and workshop, and theme
statements for each plenary session. The Program will be mailed to
conference registrants in early fall.
STUDENTS AND NEW PARTICIPANTS: To broaden participation, we plan
to provide a limited number of travel scholarships and awards. Please
contact the organizers at the address below for more information.
DEADLINE. We invite your participation. Proposals must be received by
May 1, 1989. They should include:
1. a title and abstract (150-300 words);
2. for seminar proposals only, a short reading list (30-50
pages of reading);
3. format (e.g. paper presentation, seminar, performance,
workshop, exhibit, or demonstration) and corresponding
technical and audio-visual requirements.
Since items 1 and 2 will be published in the Conference Program,
they must be submitted in one of the following formats:
camera ready copy OR
5 1/4" or 3 1/2 " MS-DOS 3.3 compatible floppy disk:
ASCII, Microsoft Word(, Wordperfect(, or Wordstar( OR
3 1/2" Macintosh( compatible floppy disk: Text, Microsoft
Word(, or MacWrite( .
Please mail proposals to:
Christoph Berendes
Center for Cybernetic Studies
in Complex Systems
Old Dominion University
Norfolk, VA 23529-0248
(804) 683-4558
Internet: chrisber@well.uucp
Usenet: {hplabs,sun}!well!chrisber
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