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Introduction to Panel on Cybernetics and Policy Studies. Stuart A. Umpleby The George Washington University Washington, DC. What is cybernetics? . A general theory of control and communication, which underlies the social sciences
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Introduction to Panel on Cybernetics and Policy Studies Stuart A. Umpleby The George Washington University Washington, DC
What is cybernetics? • A general theory of control and communication, which underlies the social sciences • Just as physics, a general theory of matter and energy, underlies the engineering fields • A general theory of an information society • Our message: There is far more to cybernetics than just computers
Origins of cybernetics • Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation conferences from 1946 to 1953 • Title: Circular Causal and Feedback Mechanisms in Biological and Social Systems • Some Participants: Warren McCulloch, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead, Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Ross Ashby
Speakers on this panel 1,2 • Stuart Umpleby, professor of management at George Washington University, past president of Am. Society for Cybernetics • Kent Myers, a management consultant working on IT in the Intelligence Community
Speakers on this panel 3,4 • Peter Tuddenham, College of Exploration, an on-line educational enterprise, large system management and change • Ranulph Glanville, consultant to schools of architecture, current president of the American Society for Cybernetics