Current Topics in Cybernetics and Systems, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1978 Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of Cybernetics & Systems 21-25 August, 1978 Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This book is a record of the contents of the papers accepted by the Congress Committee for presentation at the Fourth International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 21-25 August 1978). Two hundred and forty-five papers from authors from thirty-three countries of all the five continents are included. The papers are presented in an abridged form in order to highlight the main themes and produce a book that is both readable and relatively inexpensive. It was felt that after the publication of the weighty and rather costly form of the Proceedings of the Third International Congress of Cybernetics and Systems held in Bucharest, Romania in 1975 (Modern Trends in Cybernetics and Systems, eds. Rose and Bilciu, W. O. G. S. c. and Springer-Verlag, 1977; 3 volumes about 3500 pages; $150), an abridged but comprehen­ sive version would be more acceptable to readers. It is worth noting that the full names and addresses of authors are given for each paper, and requests to authors for more information and even full-scale papers would produce a positive response. As a matter of interest, each paper carries, in addition, brief summaries. The papers are arranged in each section or symposium in the alphabetical order of authors' names; this is not necessarily the order of presentation at the Congress.

Symposium on “Social Systems”.- A Theoretical Analysis of Higher states of Consciousness and Meditation.- Modelling and Simulation of Macro-Social Systems for Cybernetic Purposes.- The Potential in Simulation of Macro-Social Processes or How to be a Useful Builder of Simulation Models.- Simulation-Reality: A Feedback Loop.- Simulation of Large-Scale Systems by Aggregation.- Symposium on “Computer Privacy”.- To be Effective, Privacy Needs Security!.- Computer Privacy—Regulatory Aspects.- Computers and the Law of Privacy: The American Experience.- Privacy in the Future Information Society.- Symposium on “Robots”.- Robotics and Society.- The Future of Robotics.- Telechirics.- Industrial Robot Today—Structure and Application.- Section 1—Artificial Intelligence.- A Note on the Construction of Hadamard Matrices.- Automatic Solution of Syllogisms and Sorites.- Role of Elongatedness in Digital Figure Compression.- On a Learning System.- Machine Intelligence and a Constructive Epistemology.- Designing C. A. I. on Some Ideas of Artificial Intelligence.- The Model’s Dimensions: A Form for Argument.- Theory of Model Dimensions to Relational Databases.- Representation of the Environment in a Complex Heterogeneous Stationary Random Medium.- Interactive Mobile Automata: Deterministic Models.- Elements of a Cybernetic Theory of Purposiveness.- The Mechanics Problem Solver: A Problem and Goal-Driven Inferencing System.- Using Transducer Tremor to Refine Gray Level Images.- Artificial Intelligence Structure Based on Associative Space.- An AI Archetype.- Using Natural Language in a CAI System: The Knowledge Base.- A Model for Knowledge Acquisition Systems with Problem Solver.- Communication Predicates: A Complete Strategy for Resolution-Based Theorems-Provers: An Evaluation of an Implementation.- Optimal Information Reduction Systems Require Multi-Layer-Structures.- Automatic Error Detection in Natural Language Words.- Cybernetics and Conceptual Analysis.- Negative Goals and Forbidden States.- Efficient Measurement Selection in Invariant Pattern Recognition.- Mental Set Revisited in the Formal Manner.- On the Problem of Representation.- Section 2—Cybernetics of Economic Systems and Management.- Cybernetic Approach to the Management of Economic Systems.- Evolution of an Input-Output Leontief Matrix.- The Correspondence System as a Method of Interdependence Measurement in Comparative Development Analyses.- Applied Entropic Concepts for Establishing the Organisational Level in Machines Building Enterprises.- The National Economy, as a Material Stock and Flow System.- Asymptotical Investigation of the Virtual Waiting Time for Priority Queues in a Busy Store.- Systematic and Goal-Oriented Targets for Systems Planning.- Limits to Modeling and Optimal Control of Dynamic Systems in an Economy: Towards Another Operations Research.- Development and Implementation of a Hierarchical Computer Aided Company Planning System.- Cybernetics of Technology and Economic Growth.- Managing a Steady-State Firm. A Cybernetic Framework.- Controlled Problem Solving in Management.- System Simulation and Cybernetics Affirm Potential of Low Cost Solar Power.- Algorithmic Systems with Hierarchical Structure for Control of Economic Processes.- The Environmental Effects of Economical Growth—A Two-Level Mathematical Model.- The Choice of Policies in Socioeconomic Systems by System Dynamics (Presentation of a Real Case).- “Resistance” Towards Change and Its Effect on Decision-Making.- Economic Cybernetics of Informatics: Decision and Control.- A System Modelling for the World Economy and Control Simulation Analysis: A Two-Country Case.- Information Structure of Multi-Level Planning Processes in Self Management Environment.- The Development of Management Systems for Data Banks with Facilities for Calculations on Tree-Like Information Structures.- Self-Management Social Welfare Model.- Stochastic Experiments with an Econometric Model.- Some Remarks on the Theorem of Gnedenko and Soloviev.- An Analytical Model for the Material Transformation Process.- Information Systems for Self Management.- The Role of the Motivation System in the Optimization of Complex Economic System.- Theory and Practice with a System Dynamics Model of the U.K. Economy.- Computational Experiments with an Economic System Model.- A Cost Abatement Model of the River Tees (in the U.K.).- On Certain Models of Resource Allocation Problems.- Section 3—Industrial Cybernetics.- Some Aspects of Automated Quality Control.- On the Dual Adaptive Control of Stochastic Systems.- An Application of the Bajureanu-Buda Criteria in On-Off Control Systems.- Algorithms for Direct Digital Control and their Implementation on Micro-Computers.- The Stability of Large-Scale Systems in the Face of Small Perturbations.- Information and Coherence in Large-Scale Energy System Design.- Decision Tables in Computer-Aided Engineering Projects.- A New Method for Optimizing Systems with Bounded-State Variables 125.- Adaptive Control via Input Matching Despite Plant Structure Uncertainty.- Application of Some Rules of Propositional Calculus to the Design of Digital Systems: Introduction and Elimination Rules.- Stability of Correct Reasoning.- A Compiler Technique for Modelling Multiprocessor Systems Utilising Microprocessors of Arbitrary Architecture.- A Model System for the Management of Discontinuous Processes in a Production Sector.- Man’s Reliability Under Operator Stress.- Section 4—Informatics and Education.- The Information System for Educational Management Activity.- Evolution Through Learning: An Image-Making Oriented Approach.- Automatic Database Mapping and Translation Methods.- Concept of P-Information.- Automatic Detection and Recognition of Vowels in Continuous Speech.- Towards a Scientific Theory of Pedagogy.- An Automatic Information System for Self-Learning.- Psycho-Cybernetics of Human Behaviour with Special Reference to Learning Deficiency in Children.- Simulation of Free Will.- A Cybernetic Teaching System for Undergraduate Engineers.- Some Systems Concepts and Educational Systems Development.- Psycho-Cultural Cybernetics: The Psycho-Dynamic Cybernetics of Acculturation.- Learning as Decoding.- Modelling of Computer Communication Networks via Probabilistic Automata.- Diversity and Unity in Cybernetics.- A Model of a Document Retrieval System Based on the Conception of Semantic Disjunctive Normal Form.- Information, Entropy and Knowledge.- Analysis of Nonstationary Data-Sets by Information-Filtering.- A Cybernetic Approach to the Specification and Interfacing of Software Modules.- Learning Through New Information—A changing Structure Oriented Approach.- Cybernetic Approach to Escape Learning in Toads.- Universally Shared Attributes of Human Behaviour.- Application of the Structure Theory in Learning Systerns.- Section 5—Neuro and Bio-Cybernetics.- A Model for the Regulation of Agonistic-Antagonistic Couple in the Field of Medical Therapeutics, Mathematical Study and Other Applications.- Theoretical Analysis of Bronchial Elasticity and Regional Inequalities in the Ventilation Mechanism.- Analytical Solution of a Respiration Model.- Cybernetic Elucidation of the Nerve Action Potential.- The Cybernetics of Human Physical Performance.- Combinatory Spaces and Memory.- Simulation of Disturbed Cell Renewal Systems by Means of a Microprocessor System.- Operating Model of the Nephron.- A Thermodynamic Definition of the Computer and Its Application to Biological Systems.- Application of Optimized Parallel Processing Digital Computers and Numerical Approximation Methods to the Ultra-High Speed Three Dimensional Reconstruction of the Intact Thorax.- The Cybernetics of Musical Appreciation.- Energy-Information Performance Criteria of Walking.- Multichannel Analysis of Intracellular Control and Intercellular Transfer of Molecules.- On the Development of a Twin Exponential Model Fitting Process.- An Automatic Picture Processing Method for Tracking and Quantifying the Dynamics of Blood Cell Motion.- Optimal Control of Haemodynamical Parameters in Heart Disease.- Bio- and Neurocybernetic Models of the Living Being.- A Generalized Model for Non-Linear Retinal Processing.- A Program Framework for Experimenting with Retinal Models.- The Use of the Medical Record as Feedback Control For Medical Information Centers.- Communication Between Two Self-Organising Systerns Modelled by Controlled Markov Chains.- A Program Library for Computing the Parameters of Linear Compartment Models in Pharmacokinetics.- Variable Random Nerve Nets.- Input Stimulus Design for Model Discrimination in Human Respiratory Control.- Study of the Nervous Command During Walking.- Adaptive Filters and Eye Movements in Perception.- Section 6—Social Systems.- Achievement as an Analysis Unit for Studying Sociocultural Systems.- A System Model of Energy-Focused Environmental Education.- A Systems Model for the Analysis of Industrial Democracy Reforms.- Computer-Simulation of Social Systems: A Survey.- Control Theory and Social Change: Toward a Synthesis of the System and Action Approaches.- The Technological Environment and Organisation Boundary Conditions: A Theoretical Discussion of Opening and Closing Phenomena with Design Implications.- Are Societies Turing Machines? Some Implications of the Cyclical Majority Problem, An N.P. Complete Problem for Cybernetic Models of Social Systems.- Redundancy in Natural Language Processing.- Political Attention and Government Stimulation of the Economy.- Actors, Games and Systems: The Dialectics of Social Action and System Structuring.- Methodology and Epistemology for Second Order Cybernetics.- A Semiotic Model of Society as a Learning Process.- Central Decision-Making in Pluralistic Systems.- Toward a Theory of Artifacts in the Survey-Interview.- A Formalization of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory.- Simulation and Its Application to the Behaviour of Social Systems.- The Verification of the Systems Theory by Philosophy.- The Participant—Observer Reviewed.- A Siggs Information Theoretic Characterization of Qualitative Knowing: Cybernetic and Siggs Theory Models.- A Systems-Formalism for Human Attributions.- Boom-Town Bust-Town: A Systems Model for Societal Exploitation.- Disciplinary Prestige and the Accuracy of Social Predictions as a Deviation-Amplifying Feedback.- The Method of Interactive Simulation.- Nutrition Planning for Aid to the Poor: An Application of the Policy Delphi Methodology.- Social Gaming and Control by Dislocations.- Labile and Invariable Valuations.- The State Goals Groups and the Private Enterprise: A Conceptual Framework.- A Structural Model of Organizational Decision-Making.- A Model of Oligarchization.- The System-Dynamics Approach for Urban Models in the Western European Context.- Information-Intensive Social Systems: Some Research Developments and Policy Implications.- Social Structure, Personality and Affect: A Systems Approach.- Cybernetic Model of Man.- Temporalization of Complexity.- Morphogenesis and Management: Some Implications.- The Public Use of Computers—The Way Ahead.- Social Systems, “Social Order” and “Entropy Reserves” in Society.- The Structural Criteria of Social System Maturity.- Cybernetic Theorems of Feedback in Social Processes.- From Ecology to an Extension of Systems-Analysis.- Alteration of Information in Channels: A Cross-Level Analysis.- Steps—A Planning and Designing Support System for Urban Transit Systems.- Psycho-Cultural Cybernetics: The Psycho-Dynamic Cybernetics of Acculturation.- System and Policy.- A Model of Voice Allocation During Discussion.- Foundations of a Formal Theory of Social Change.- Elements of Discontinuity Within Long-Term Architectural Projects.- Automatic System of Classification of the Data from Social Subsystems and Its Compatible Use.- Human Problem-Solving: A Systems Cybernetic View from the Top.- The Social Order and Prophetic Practice.- The Entropy Law and the Subject-Object Problematic.- Universally Shared Attributes of Human Behavior.- Bounding the Relevance of System Dynamics: A Contextual Analysis.- The Conditions for Social and Political Equilibria.- The Dialectical Method and Its Compatibility with Modern Systems Theory.- An Information-Theoretic Approach to the Organization of Police Forces.- Dialectics and Catastrophe.- Section 7—Systems and Models Including Environmental Problems.- Introductory Paper to Section—Analytical Research has Proved the Systems Character of all Nature.- Cybernetics as a Systems Philosophy.- Feedback Control of Linear Diffusion Processes.- Technical Chemical Systems as Conservation Systems.- to a General Theory of Spontaneous Self-Regulating Entities.- The Cybernetics of Environmental Decision-Making.- Self-Altering Systems.- A Cybernetic Approach to Population Dynamics Modeling.- A System of Problems and How to Deal With It.- A Socio-Econometric Model of Health Care Systems in U.S.A..- Vers Une Theorie Vraiment Scientifique des Systemes.- Technology is a Reflection of Natural Systems.- Systems Science: Chaos or Harmony.- Goal Programming: The Methodology and Its Application to the Pennsylvania Coal Model.- A Categorical Approach to the Equilibrium and Stability Problems in General System Theory.- Reliability of an Organisation.- Some Theoretical Problems of the Layout and Connection Tasks in the Design of Technical Systems.- A System Approach to a Search of Laws of Empirical Theories.- Balance Equations of Technical Chemical Systems.- How General can the Systems Theory be for the Reduction in Social and Natural Sciences.- A Systems Model of Human Behaviour.- A Cybernetic Approach to Systems Modelling.- Decentralized Man-Man Computer-Aided Communication System for Train Regulation.- Studies on Conservation Systems.- Ecological Rationality Beyond Cybernetics.- Numerical-Analytical Simulation of Markov Systems.- Markovian Formulation of Computer Network Performance.- A Computer Simulation System for Modeling Spatial Dynamics in Community Ecology.- Some Simple Multi-Level Models.- Modelling and Control of a Population of Greenhouse Aleurodes.- Notes on a Mathematical Model in Plasma Physics.- Studies of an Operational Unit System Family.- A Mathematical Systems-Theory of Database Systems.- Cycles and Systems with Living Parts.- A New Approach to the Estimation of Continuous Spectra.- Integration of their Environment.- On Distributed Computing for Large Systems Identification.- Selecting Techniques for Environmental Evaluation: A Systems Approach.- Section 8—Fuzzy Systems.- Application of Fuzzy Logic to the Design of a Behavioural Model in an Industrial Environment.- Universes of Fuzzy Sets, Closed Under Fuzzification.- Branch-and-Bound Algorithms for Decision-Making in a Fuzzy Environment.- Fuzzy Termination Time in Decision-Making in a Fuzzy Environment.- Towards an Analysis of Linguistic Modelling.- Some Properties of Fuzzy Sets under Various Operations.- On Fuzzy Systems.- Fuzzy Reasoning and Dialogues.- Decision-Making with a Fuzzy Preference Relation in a Fuzzy Set of Alternatives.- Ordering, Preferences and Fuzzy Optimization.- Fuzzy Integral Games.- On Fuzzy Information Retrieval.- Fuzzy Systems and Learning Models.- An Analysis of Fuzzy Models and a Discussion of Their Limitations.- Verbal Formulation of Fuzzy Dynamic Systems.- On Some Equivalence Between Control Theory and Decision-Making Theory.- On the Need for Membership Grades in Fuzzy Sets.- Membership Functions and Their Assessment.- Open Forum—“Science and Society”.- Science in Relation to Society.- Science and Technology: Routes to Global Interdependence.- How to Get Society to Appreciate the Economic, Value of Science and Mathematics.- to Discussion.- Special Pre-Congress Meeting—“Benefits of Conceptual Unification”.- Why Conceptual Unification?.