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

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 Speakers on this panel 3,4