Kybernetes: Volume 35 Issue 3/4

The cold war within a sociological systems perspective

To provide a systems explanation of world wars as civilizational phenomena with a special focus on the cold war defined as an interaction war between two parties which cannot…

Reflexivity revisited: the sociocybernetics of belief, meaning, truth and power

To present sociocybernetic models of observers in interaction with the aim of encouraging reflection on what is good practice in human communication.

Thank you Felix Geyer

To pay tribute to Felix Geyer's contributions to the activities of Research Committee (RC) 36, alienation research and theory, of the International Sociological Association.

Happiness and the pursuit of happiness: A sociocybernetic approach

To provide a coherent theoretical framework for interdisciplinary research on happiness, integrating the psychological, physiological/biological, and social/cultural levels…

Thinking about experience and action

To develop a conception of experience and action.

The sociological concept of autopoiesis: Biological and philosophical basics and governance relevance

To explore the sociological concept of autopoiesis (N. Luhmann), investigate its interdisciplinary roots and demonstrate its practical relevance.

Sociocybernetics and social entropy theory

To present the contributions of sociocybernetics, particularly as developed by Felix Geyer, and to compare sociocybernetics with social entropy theory (SET).

The challenge of the past for the future of the social sciences

To demonstrate that the past of the social sciences contains all the elements of sociocybernetics and that those elements combined with the logic of modern interdisciplinary…

The necessity of trans‐scientific frameworks for doing interdisciplinary research: Developed from a conference paper for paradigms lost and paradigms gained: negotiating interdisciplinarity in the twenty‐first century, Calgary, May 2001

The purpose of this theoretical research paper in philosophy and theory of science is to argue for the necessity of developing transdisciplinary frameworks in order to be able to…

Sociocybernetics and testability: a bridge too far?

To investigate how far sociocyberneticians have tried to meet the criterion of “empirical testability” in their publications. What changes in this respect have taken place in…

A forgotten message? von Bertalanffy's puzzle

This paper aims to celebrate Felix Geyer's many contributions to the systems movement. He participated from the beginning, with the energy that has become his hallmark. The area…

Corporate social responsibility from the viewpoint of systems thinking

The corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essential topic of both life and sociocybernetics. It requires businesspersons and other decision makers to be broad and hence to…

Social knowledge for a world in transition: Sociocybernetics and the contemporary transformation of the structures of knowledge

To provide an overview of the historical development of non‐reductive currents in science that underpinned the sociocybernetic movement and from that perspective assess the…

Complex systems studies and the concepts of security

To present which properties of social systems can be used in studying and determining their broadly defined security. A core concept of security is to be developed into a typology…

Is Kevin Warwick a dandy?: Observation, self‐control and the evolution of perception‐steering mechanisms

To celebrate the life and achievements of Felix Geyer by addressing issues of mutual interest, in a light‐hearted and informative fashion.

The crisis of contemporary science

To present a new approach to scientific thinking (paradigm) that avoids the shortcomings and inconsistencies of the prevailing Newtonian approach.

Studying alienation: toward a better society?

To show that, although it is not intuitively evident, it is clear that, for the researchers, studying alienation is one way of doing social science that contributes to making…

The biological metaphor of a second‐order observer and the sociological discourse

In the tradition of Spencer Brown's Laws of Form, observation was defined in Luhmann's social systems theory as the designation of a distinction. In the sociological design…

The two faces of American power: Military and political communication during the Cuban missile crisis

Aims to explains the mismatches between political discourse and military momentum in the US handling of the Cuban missile crisis by using the model of the potential autopoiesis of…

The vicarious self: Media and individual experience in the context of societal complexity reduction

To provide a theoretical context for the application of F. Geyer's work on alienation in highly complex societal environments to the study of the social and cultural impact of the…

Cybernetics and systems on the web: Jerry Wiesner and MIT

Aims to review internet sources relevant to the life and achievements of Jerry Wiesner. He was Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics of MIT during the birth of…

Jerry Wiesner, Scientist, Statesman, Humanist: Memories and Memoirs

Modelling of High Complexity Systems with Applications

Web Dynamics. Adapting to Change in Content, Size, Topology and Use

Exploring Chaos: Theory and Experiment

The Nuts and Bolts of Proofs

Computationally Intelligent Hybrid Systems – A Fusion of Soft Computing and Hard Computing

The Nature of Mathematical Modeling

Announcements

35th Annual Conference – 2006 International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP 2006)

Festschrift for Felix Geyer

Contributors to the Festschrift

The Turing Test

Geophysical Applications of Artificial Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic

ICDCS 2006

The Second International Workshop on Analysis and Numerical Approximation of Singular Problems

How the festschrift came about

Awards

The Man behind the Microchip: Robert Noyee and the Invention of Silicon Valley

IT Service Management, from Hell: A Guide to Worst Practices