World Congress of the Systems Sciences and 44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Toronto, 16-22 July 2000

Citation

Vallée, R. (2001), "World Congress of the Systems Sciences and 44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Toronto, 16-22 July 2000", Kybernetes, Vol. 30 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2001.06730aab.002

World Congress of the Systems Sciences and 44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Toronto, 16-22 July 2000

World Congress of the Systems Sciences and 44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences, Toronto, 16-22 July 2000

Keywords: Cybernetics, Conferences, Systems

From 16-22 July 2000, a "World Congress of the Systems Sciences" (WCSS) in conjunction with the "44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences" (AMISSS) took place in Toronto, proud of its "Canada National Tower", the tallest in the world (553m), at Ryerson Polytechnic University. The two Honorary Co-chairs were the former Presidents of ISSS, Anatol Rapoport and Stafford Beer, also President of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics. The conference Chairperson was Dr Peter A. Corning, President of ISBS and the local organiser was Dr Helmut K. Burkhardt, Professor at Reyerson Polytechnic University.

The WCSS (16-19 July) was devoted to "Understanding complexity: the, systems sciences in the new millennium". It was placed under the aegis of ISSS, in cooperation with some 20 co-host organisations such as: American Society for Cybernetics (ASC), Association Française de Science des Systèmes Cybernetiques, Cognitifs et Techniques (AFSCET), Investiture for the Study of Complex Systems, International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR), Research Committee on Sociocybernetics, Swedish Operational Research Association, Union Européenne de Systemique (UES), United Kingdom Systems Society (Cybernetics Society London), United Kingdom Systems Society, World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics (WOSC). The contributions were divided into: keynote speeches, co-host plenary speeches, symposia, panels and workshops of which we shall be able to quote only a few.

After the welcome reception on Sunday 16th, the congress is opened, on Monday, by Dr Peter A. Corning, President of the Institute for the Study of Complex Systems and Dr Claude Lajeunesse, President of Ryerson Polytechnic University. Among the keynote speeches which followed, we may note "The systemic view of the world" by Professor Anatol Rapoport (University of Toronto). In the afternoon, in a panel organised by the Research Committee on Sociocybernetics and chaired by Richard Lee, G. De Zeeuw spoke "On constructivism: complete collectives and the evolution of research" and Diane Laflamme on "The attestation of ethical ability and intention: an autopoietic process?"

On Tuesday 18th, a co-host plenary speech was given by Professor Humberto Maturana (Universidad de Chile), representing the American Society for Cybernetics, on "Conservation and change". In the afternoon, a symposium was organised by Professor Helmut K. Burkhardt on "Global issues in the new millennium". The Swedish Operational Research Association presented a panel, chaired by Stig C. Holmberg who spoke about "The time discussion in complex multicriteria spatial decision making", and Pier S. Agrell gave his views on "A constructivist decision support".

The same day, at 8.00 p.m., there was "An evening with Stafford Beer" (Plate 1) during which Professor Stafford Beer, President of VOSC, and Professor Robert Vallée, Director-General of WOSC, presented the "Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal" to Professor Candace Pert, in the presence of Dr Peter A. Corning, President of the Congress. The Gold Medal had already been presented to eight people, including Professor Heinz von Foerster at the occasion of the meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics in Chicago (1995) and Professor Ilya Prigonine during the "11th Congress of Cybernetics and Systems" of the WOSC held in Uxbridge (1999). The medal represents, on one hand, the Watt's governor (the symbol of WOSC) and on the other the Nyquist diagram in complex plane. The citation was: "The World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics has pleasure to present its Gold Medal to Dr Candace Pert, in recognition of the relevance to cybernetics science of her seminal work in molecular biology, with molecules considered as informational substances, and of providing pioneering scientific insights into an holistic view of the body-mind unity". The presentation was followed by a short talk by Dr Pert and a general discussion. The evening was a great success in every respect.

Plate 1 Professor Candice Pert (center) who received the Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal, with the President of WOSC, Professor Stafford Beer (left) and the Director-General, Professor Robert Vallée (right)

On Wednesday 19th, after lunch, there was a co-host plenary speech given by Professor Robert Vallée (University Paris-Nord ), Director-General of WOSC, on "The WOSC and some views about cybernetics". In the first part was given an historical presentation of WOSC, its affiliated bodies, the journal Kybernetes, the 11 "International Congresses of Cybernetics and Systems" held since 1969, the 25 "Honorary Fellows of WOSC", the "Norbert Wiener Memorial Gold Medal", the "Norbert Wiener Institute of Systems and Cybernetics" (Director Professor Brian H. Rudall) the Web site (Webmaster Professor Alex Andrew). In the second part, about cybernetics, are shown two different trends opposing the discrete and the continuous. The session ended with a special symposium chaired by Professor Mihajlo D. Mesarovic on "Resources and the environment in the new millennium".

Among the afternoon panels: "Ethics and sustainable social systems", chaired by Katheleen Forythe (ASC), the panel organised by the Center for Applied Development Studies and chaired by Professor Raul Espejo (Director at WOSC): "Organisational adventures in Driftland" (R. Espejo and R. Zamara), "Purposeful action towards organisational change: a critical systems thinking perspective" (A. Carrioza), "Organisational citizenship" (Zendiwelso-Bendek and R. Espejo), "Expert versus lay knowledge: systems ideas, precision farming and farmer's knowledge" (J. Tsouvalis, S. Seymour and C. Watkins). In the afternoon there was also the special panel of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, organised and chaired by Professor Markus Schwaninger (Universität St Gallen) and presented by Professor Robert Vallée. It was devoted to "Managing complexity – organisational cybernetics" with contributions from R. Vallée, "Perception, decision, action", M. Schwaninger, "An integrative framework for the design of intelligent organizations", A. Reyer, "An instance of organizational learning: the case of the Colombian general accounting office", O. Scherf (in absentia), "Complexity: a conceptual challenge".

On Thursday 20th, the "44th Annual Meeting, International Society for the Systems Sciences" started, also at Ryerson Polytechnic University. Each day there were many panels, each corresponding generally to a special interest group of ISSS. Let us quote, on Thursday: "Systems applications to business and industry" chaired by Enrique Herrscher with, among others, "The viable system model and audit enquiry" by Allena Leonard, also coordinator for poster presentations ("Does a company have a frontier? An inner and an outer", by J.-C. de Maneville, etc.); also "Foundations of information science" (FIS) chaired by Soren Brier, with "Cybersemiotics as a suggestion for FIS" by S. Brier, "Processes and human processes" chaired by Hector Sabelli, "Thermodynamics and systems theory" chaired by Tony Trewavas, with "Thermoeconomics: beyond the second low" by P.A. Corning, … "Research in general systems theory" chaired by Helmut K. Burkhardt, with "Universal knowledge tools" by H.K. Burkhardt, "Cybernetic exergy: a complex concept for the ability to do work" by H.K. Burkhardt and G.A. Swanson. After dinner there was a special workshop on "Understanding complexity through systems modelling" organized by Robert A. Orchard with M. Solomon, E. Byrnes, R.A. Orchard, N. Bashias, G. Klir and L. Troncale.

On Friday 21st, the communications began with a keynote speech by Professor George J. Klir (State University of New York, Binghamton) on "The role of uncertainty and soft computing in intelligent systems". Panels were devoted, among many others, to "systems applications" chaired by Jennifer Kilby, "Living – systems analysis" chaired by Lane Tracy, with "A way to analyze biological systems: the concept of functional interaction" by G.A. Chauvet, "Critical systems thinking" chaired by Amanda Gregory, "Systems, philosophy and ethics" chaired by Albert Vlug with "Machine alerts man: a Y2K lesson for systems-philosophy" by A. Vlug, "Vision, autopoiesis and relationships" by L.J. Fillion, and again "Living systems analysis" chaired by Lane Tracy, "Observation and communication theory" by G.A. Swanson. In the afternoon other panels such as "Duality theory" chaired by Vitaly Dubrovsky, with "Sign and space: a pivot" by L.H. Kauffman, and again "Research into a general systems theory" chaired by Helmut K. Burkhardt, with "Intrinsic time of a dynamical system" by R. Vallée, "A case for the minimum: least effort as meta umbrella" by J.H. Robins and "Consistent spatio-temporal reasoning in a trans-finite Cantorian universe" by K. Johnson and J. Rose. The afternoon ended with a plenary forum: "The lesson of Y2K", chaired by Stuart Umpleby with contributions by S. Umpleby on "Why the century-date change went so smoothly: a report of a conference", by A. Collen about a "Y2K survey of graduate students of distance education community". Then came the conference banquet with a presidential address by Peter A. Corning on "The systems sciences in the year 3000". The day ended with a public symposium entitled "Can there be a reconciliation between science and religion?".

The last day, Saturday 22nd, started with a workshop organised by Len Troncale on "The natural sciences and doing systems research" followed by panels such as, again, "Systems, philosophy and ethics" chaired by Albert Vlug, with "Exploring the field of systems ethics" by A. Vlug, "Bioethism, a universal paradigm substratum to a collective and social consciousness" by J.J. Blanc and "What is life and living" chaired by John Kineman, with "What is life/living? A possible answer using a specific theoretical framework" by G.A. Chauvet, and "Life and space-time cosmology" by. J.J. Kineman and J.R. Kineman.

The Proceedings of the World Congress of the Systems Sciences and ISSS 2000, containing abstracts of the keynote and co-hosts' speeches and also full texts of the contributions to the panels, were given to the participants. A book on Understanding Complexity (J. Wilby and G. Ragsdell (Eds)) with the complete keynotes, co-host speeches, symposia and contributions due to ISSS presidents on past, present and future of systems science, will be published before the end of the year 2000 by Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, London.

Robert Vallée