In memoriam – Professor Rose

Citation

Vallee, R. (2009), "In memoriam – Professor Rose", Kybernetes, Vol. 38 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2009.06738aaa.003

In memoriam – Professor Rose

Article Type: In memoriam – Professor Rose From: Kybernetes, Volume 38, Issue 1/2

I met Professor J. Rose for the first time in 1975 at the occasion of the third International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems of the WOSC (at that time WOGSC) in Bucharest. The contact had been excellent, I appreciated his views about cybernetics and systems. He introduced me to the WOSC and I became Honorary Fellow (1979), Director-General (1987) when he partly retired, Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medallist of WOSC (1990) and President (2003) after the disparition of Professor Stafford Beer.

Professor Rose had a very broad vision on cybernetics and systems when he created the WOSC (1969), initiated its series of International Congresses (now at its 14th edition) and launched the journal Kybernetes. J. Rose understood the necessity of a wide enterprise, not confined to the occidental world. He was, consciously or not, inspired by Ashby’s so-called principle of “requisite variety”. This cybernetical “law” states that to achieve a given purpose a certain diversity of means must be used. Obviously, not too less, but also and not too many because of the unavoidable dispersion of efforts. In the case of the development of systems and cybernetics, requisite variety must concern cultural viewpoints. That is why Professor Rose chose for the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, also called Organisation Mondiale pour la Systémique et la Cybernétique, three official languages: English, French and Russian. Up to now, WOSC has used mainly English, some French and unfortunately almost no Russian.

What we must remember is the ecumenical vision of Professor J. Rose, a vision open to all aspects of systems and cybernetics, to all cultural sensitivities.

Robert ValléeUniversité Paris-Nord, Paris, France