The President Looks Ahead

F o r twenty­five years, t b e informational rev­olution in science a n d engineering bas Iaken diverse forms, often link­ing disparate dis­ciplines by notions

Dr. McCulloch 0 f computation, control and

command tbat constitute cybernetics. Ottr society was founded to bring Iogether tbose groups wbo are con­cerned witb these problems and who share the reqttisite varieties of seminal ideas from which our futttre ventures ma-y selectively evolve.

For Ibis we need a common lang-1tage tbat has been developing in interdisciplinary teams, meetings and publications, and which must become comprehensive enough for our disci­plines of analyzing, of synthesizing and of compiling systems, constituted of organisms and machines. The sttccess of our first scientific meeting in W ashingtor., so diversified in speakers ard so well attended, would have been impossible a few years ago.

T he program of tbe opening meeting of the Cbicago cbapter, on January 17th bids fair to jollow suit. This is due partly to the success of applications of cybernetics to the solution of problems in the entrenched disciplines of science and engineering, partly to the increased use, under­standing and invention of the approp­ritlfe logic and matbematics, wbich is a development of the logic· of triadic relations and the theory of coupled nonlinear oscillations.

The mentalism which st;/l cries "No machine can think!" will seem to our children as dead as the vitalism of our fathers which said "No machine can live!" - provided cybernetics becomes their common language. T o promote this, and fo keep pace with the explosion of our thoughts, we have sfarted Ibis newsletter. Piease give it and tts the support of yOttr new significant idcas, hunches or achievemenls.

Dr. Warren McCulloch

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR CYBERNETICS VOL. 1- NO 1 JANUARY 1968

ASC's First Annual Symposium ls a Resounding Success

Gaithersburg, Md. - The possibilities of designing computers to perform creative tasks was one of the subjects of a two-day American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) symposium held at the National Bureau of Standards Auditorium in Gaithersburg October 26-27, 1967. Although computers will never replace man, scientists hope one day to be able to build and program them to solve problems when the procedures to develop the answers aren't already stored in the compu~cr's memory. Computers that can do this arc called "purposive systems". Today's most perfect purposive system is man. Tomorrow, perhaps, it: will also be a computer - a computer designed to help man solve t echnical, scientific and social problems that because of their complexity were previously unsolvable.

Cybernetics experts from Western Europe, the Middle East and from behind the iron curtain presented papers at the ASC meeting -the theme of which was "Purposive Systems: The Edge of Knowledge." The program was the first annual symposium of the Americ:ln Society for Cybernetics and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

International speakers on the program included Dr. Y. Bar-Hillel, Hebrew University, Israel Herbert Anschutz, Ministry of Defense, West Germany· and Dr. Nicholai M. Amosov, Head, Biological Cybernetics Department. Institute of Cybernetics, Kiev, Ukrainian S.S.R.

Keynote speaker for the conference was Dr. Frederick Seitz, President of the National Academy of Science. His topic was "The Challenge".

The two-day cybernetics con"erence was presented in four sessions. The first - ''Man as a Purposive System" was chaired by Dr. Warren McCulloch of M.I.T. who is also Presidcnt of the American Society for Cybernetics. "Purposive" has been rlefined as the ability to seek goals. Man is a perfect goal-seeking system. He seeks a job or a change in jobs. He seeks a mate, an education, or various methods of relaxation.

Machines are not yet developed into successful goal-seeking (or purposive) systems and the second ASC session covered problems surrounding that subject under the chairmanship of Dr. Carl Hammer Director of Scientific Marketing, UNIVAC.

The third se~sion covered "Men and Machines Together as Purposive Systems" and was chaired by Dr. Heinz von Foerster of the University of Illinois ..

The fourth and final session was an open forum discussion between the symposium speaker.s and attendees. Speakers included Dr. Ralph Gerard, Dean of the Graduate School, University of California; Dr. Alexander Frazer, University of Cincinnati; Dr. Emmanuel Mesthene of Harvard: J. A. Haddad, Corporate V. P. for R & D, IBM: Dr. Saul Amarel RCA, Princeton Laboratories Dr. Seymour Papert, M.I.T.; Dr. Ivan S~therland, Harvard; Dr. J. C. R. Licklider, IBM; and Dr. David Hawkins of the University of Colorado.

Special presentations were made by Dr. Talcott Parsons, (Harvard) President, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Margaret IvTead of New York Museum of Natural History.

Dr. Parsons' talk covered "Facilitating Technological Innovation in Society". Dr. Margaret Mead, weil known anthropolo~ist and co­sditor of the proceedings of the first meetings on cybernetics held at Princeton in the early 1950's (under the sponsorship of the Josiah Macy

Contmued on Page 2

Will Machines Enslave Man? by Dr. Anatoly Dorodnitisin

Man - machine relationship, the natural by-product of rapid technological progress, has some curious sides.

Only the silent electronic computers seem ungovernable, and therefore frightening: other machines from diverse branches of engineering will obey man, and, what is more, will never be able to start working without man.

So far computers are in their infancy. All they do is calculate and perform operations of ele­mentary logic - and only as man teils them. But some people already visualize assignment of­all kinds of mental work to com­puters. Everyone agrees now that they can do mental work. What is more, 'feelings' can be imputed to computers.

Primary feelings are the phys­ical senses. A computer fitted with all kinds of devices to act as sensory argans can perceive and assess environmental situa­tions. Technically, creation of a perceptor-machine is no Ionger a problem.

difference will be greater than the difference between the arithmometer and the most modern computer now avail­able.

Man or Robot Victorious? While man creates automatic

thinking machines that. will be his helpers, he could, in princi­ple, also create machines that would be his enemies. Hence sci-fic writers advance semi­fantasies about machine-socie­ty's subjugation of mankind.

History shows however, that even machines created to de­stroy man in due course (can) become his benefactors.

Computers will . not haveto change from friends into foes. Mankind will apparently create thinking robots, after achieving vast social improvement.

But could it be that machines would turn into man's foes if Scientists imparted wills of their own to them? I say so, because man can, right from the start, bend the machines to his own will by setting them his own aims.

Since it is possible to simu­late attachment - a human emotion - in machines, their creators will do this if they are normal and humane people.

Man's evolution, his positive and negative qualities, are all conditioned by the instinct of self-preservation. This instinct, this basic universal aim, will never be discarded; it has been developing ever since Earth came into being bilions of years ago. The species, which follow­ed this instinct most faithfully , survived in the course of natural selection.

Guided by t.his eterna!..__Jn­stinct, man will protect hirnself against the machines by build­ing into them the aim of pre­serving their master.

That is why I have no fears for the era of thinking ma­chines. I am sure they will enormously expand the horizons of man.

-Condensed from Sputnik Monthly Digest- Vol. 2, 1967.

Many mathematicians and cy- C l d , ~ C • E t bernetics scientists are working a en ar OJ omzng Ven S on image identification by January 1968 machine. The machine accurate- Conference on METHODOLOGIES OF PATTERN RECOGNITION, ly portrays the images it per- 24-26 Jan., at University of Hawaii. ceives. Some Computers can Hawaii International Conference on SYSTEM SCIENCES, 29-31 read printed texts and grasp Jan. at University of Hawaii, Honolulu. sounds. Perceived and decoded, April 1968 the images can be developed 5th Symposium on REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT, into stimulants of machine 16-18 Apri.l, at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. emotions. Depe~ding on the M='.y 1968 nature of perceptwn and assess- Fifth National :olloquium on INFORMATION RETRIEVAL, 3-4 .ment, the computeLCan acLone--May; at Omverslty of Pennsylvania-;-Fhilacreiphia, a. ---------way o~ a?other. . June 1968

Intngui?g efforts are bemg 2nd International Symposium on MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS, mad~ to s1mul~te the process of 17_22 June, at Dayton, Ohio. creah~n. Machi~es can coml?os.e 4th International Symposium on BIOASTRONAUTICS AND THE n:elodies, . rang~ng fro~ prrmi- EXPLORATION OF SPACE, 24-27 June at San Antonio, Texas. ~1ve to qmte. fair. It seems that September 1968 ~f t~e f!lac~me could be lent International Symposium on the BIO-CYBERNETICS OF TIIE msp~ratwn, It would create good CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, Washington, D. C. 8-9 September. muAsic.. t· t l k f t 5th International Congress of CYBERNETIC MEDICINE. · Naples, seien IS oo s or ways o b r solve problems that interest Italy, 23-27 Septern e · October 1968 him. He gathers information The International Federation of Automatie Control, Symposium for months, or even years, un- on TECHNICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF CONTROL AND til he hits on the procedures IN CYBERNETICS at Yerevan, Armenia, in October. required. His joy at times may border on ecstacy. Long-stored information reaches fullness and fruition. Storage of information, experience, aim and desire can be programmed into a machine. Future computers. of course, will have I i t t l e resem­blam:e to those of today: the

Continued from Page 1

Foundation) talked as an anthropologist who has spent a lifetime in research on the problems involved in social transitions.

The Society held their banquet at the Mayflower Hotel on Thursday evening. Guest speaker for the occasion was the Honorable James E. Webb, Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Dr. Heinz von Foerster was the toastmaster for the evening.

ASC Newsletter

Chicago to Host A. S. C. Meeting NASA Adntinistrator Addresses A. S. C. Symposiu1n Dinner

In his address following the Symposium Dinner at the May­ftower Hotel in Washington, D. C. recently, NASA Admin­istrator, the Honorable James Webb presented a picture of the overwhelming difficulties plag­uing administrators of Govern­ment programs as they walk a tight-rope between the vast domains of S & T personnel and costly plant on the one band and the realm of politics, society and cultural mores on the other. Viewing the administrator's job Mr. Webb saw it as a task in which the decision-maker seeks lo optimize the performance of the former in achieving the goals of the latter. But in prac­tice, Mr. Webb observed, each of these vast and complex do­mains has its own independently operating internal dynamics. Consequently, the administra­tor, whose task it is to convert information into action, is at a loss for an objective function that he can use as a criterion in making such conversions or de­cisions.

Program administrators also face tremendous obstacles when it comes to getting information upon which to base decisions. An administrator at a given point in time may have a fixed objective function, but he often Iacks the information about the S & T and operational side of his establishmer.t requisite for optimal decisions. Mr. Webb observed that it seems to be the nature of bureaucracies to deprive administrators of suffi­cient information and to insute,

therefore, a high level of un­certainty in their decisions. To the sympathetic listener at the Symposium Dinn~r, these Ob­servations were taken to signify that the management techniques to which Mr. Webb is heir are obsolete and that a theory of management consonant with the contemporary era of multi­billion, Governmen t-sponsored research and development is sorely needed .

The Chicago Chapter of The American Society F or Cybernetics gets under way with its first symposium on Wednesday, January 16, 1968, sponsored by the Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 North Clark Street. A membership drive will be held in conjunction with the symposium

The program will be as follows: Dr. Jerald S. Brodsky, Asst. Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Dr. William B. O'Neill, Asst. Professor, Systems Engineering, University of Illinois Medical School. "BLACK AND GRAY BOX EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACCOMMODATIVE AND ACCOMMODATIVE CONVERGENCE SYSTEMS"· Dr. Albert Wolfson, Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, Northwestern University, "DAILY TIME MEASUREMENT AS A REGULATOR OF ANNUAL BREEDING CYCLES AND MIGRATION OF BIRDS"; Dr. Earl Gose,Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Information Engineering, University of Illinois, "PATTERN RECOGNITION BY ANIMALS WITH MACHINES"; Dr. Peter Greene, Assoc. Professor, Committee for Mathematical Biology and Committee on Information Seiences University of Chicago,

"MOTOR CONTROL IN BRAIN AND ROBOT: SOME MATHEMATICS AND SOME SOVIET EXPERIMENTS".

The afternoon session will include: Dr. Gilbert K. Krulee, Professor Industrial Engineering and Management, Northwestern University, ''HOW PEOPLE PROCESS LANGUAGE"; Dr. Roger C. Conant, Biological Computer Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of

Illinois"· "INFORMATION TRANSFER IN COMPLEX REGULATORY SYSTEMS"; Dr. Jack D. Cowan, Chairman, Committee of Mathematical Biology, University of Chicago, "STATISTICAL MECHANICS OF NEURAL NETWORKS"; Dr. Warren McCulloch, President of the America!l Society for Cybernetics will close the symposium.

Attendance at the symposium is open to all interested individuals. No admission will be charged. For further information, contact: G. T. Jacobi, IIT Research Institute, 10 West 35th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60616: 312/225-9630-X 4002.

As Mr. Webb expressed bis concerns about the secondary and tertiary effects of the space program, the listener would conclude that the approach to the management of complex, man - machine - social systems which he was calling for would be more revolutionary and far­reaching than the vast and im­pressive technical accomplish­ments of NASA. Generalization of such a spin-off from the space program might provide insights into the mechanisms by which societies evolve in adapt­ing to radically new changes in their environment. Thus the experience of NASA could con­tribute to the US capabilities

not only fo'!' the space race but also for that larger contest hinging on the abilities of con­testants to manage their in­creasingly complex s o c i a 1 systems.

Mr. Webb's address therefore was more than a fascinating first-band account of the Gov­ernmental administrators' role in today's world; it was also a challenge for the ASC to aid in the formulation of an appro­priate adaptive approach to to­morrow's managemcnt prob­lems.

L . J . Fogel Vice-President, A. S. C., President, Decision Science· Inc.

ASC Newsletter

AROUND THE MEETING HALL . ..

Dr. Frederick Seitz President of the National Academy of Seiences and opening speaker of the §Ymposium_QQnders ''as to the ~Js...,Qf a particular canlsler of spirits presented to him as he prepared to address the audience. Dr. Heinz Von Foerster, Chairman of the ASC Board, (right) seems to be wondering. too, as T. C. Helvey looks on.

Not a lecture in 3eronautics -­rathe.r:.-an...E3 (energetlc, erudite and entertaining) presentation by Seymour Papert of M.I.T. on "Why Machin es Can 't Think!'

......

Three Honorary Founders of the society and members of the Scientific Council meet like old friends, ASC President, Warren S. McCulloch, M.D., (left); Dr. Gregory Bate­son, (center), and Dr. Frank Fremont-Smith.

The chores of Presidency. Dr. McCulloch personally and patiently signs "in original" the membership cards of each of the current members of the society. Surely a memento that will become a collector's item immediately on issuance (around the first of the year).

Dr. Nicolai M. Amosov, Deputy, Supreme Soviet, Bio-cyberneti­cist, thoracic surgeon, novelist, scientific JOUrnalist and speaker at the symposium rcceives the first r.opy of the U. S. edition of his new book "Modeling of Thinking and the Mind" -­translated and edited by L. J. Fogel, (ASC-V.P.) and L. Fine­gold.

American Society for Cybernetics clo Carl Hammer 2121 W isconsin Avenue N.W. W ashington, D . C. 20007

Form 357!) Requested

U. S. POSTAGE

36/io4 PAID Washington, D. C. Permit No.

ASC N ewslettt1