Kybernetes: Volume 30 Issue 5/6

The poet of cybernetics

Discusses Gordon Pask’s contributions to our understanding of learning and, in particular, his insistence that its occurrence forces an observer to change the reference frame used…

Voices of sanity in the conversation of psychotherapy

Addresses the problem of psychotherapy coming to understand itself formally as a conversation in which healing of distortions and breakdowns in communication occurs. The paper…

A filigree friendship

This paper concerns the author’s long‐standing friendship with Gordon Pask. It describes several occasions where their lives overlapped significantly, namely working with chemical…

Reflections on the conversation theory of Gordon Pask

The most satisfying and interesting human learning game‐of‐life is probably a conversation where there is a common will among the participants to promote understanding of our…

The extraordinary Gordon Pask

This is a short tribute statement about that extraordinary man, Gordon Pask, and his stimulating influence on architecture.

Consensus measurement in multi‐participant conversations

Pask’s conversation theory is applied to a multi‐participant (Internet) community striving for optimal mutual understanding and agreement. A system, “BetVote”, to computer‐assist…

Working with Gordon Pask: some personal impressions

Gives some personal impressions about Gordon from the author’s time working for him at System Research Ltd and from time working together in the Department of Cybernetics, Brunel…

Styles of learning and approaches to studying in higher education

Gordon Pask contributed greatly to ways of conceptualising student learning in higher education. In particular, the three learning or conceptual styles – holist, serialist and…

The increasing relevance of Pask’s work to modern information seeking and use

A series of seven empirical studies conducted in Sheffield lend support to the notion that learners do spontaneously display styles of information processing behaviour originally…

On Gordon Pask

Gordon Pask was the author’s friend and colleague. Here are some comments and reminiscences which help justify the author’s claim that he was a genius.

Fond memories of Gordon Pask

Gordon Pask has been a great influence on the author’s work in education, particularly in the development of knowledge architectures, spaces that come to life with the interaction…

The cybernetics of architecture: a tribute to the contribution of Gordon Pask

Discusses the relation between cybernetics and architecture and pays tribute to Gordon Pask’s role and influence. Indicates Pask’s contribution to an increasingly environmentally…

And he was magic

Pask’s great contribution to cybernetics is to take seriously the notion of interaction in the circular processes that lie at the heart of the subject. From his earliest days he…

On Gordon Pask

Recalls times spent in Gordon Pask’s company and the discussions with the author on a wide range of topics, but focusing especially on foundational issues in science and…

A letter from Dik Gregory

The author’s contribution to this memorial collection is the letter written to Gordon on hearing of his death.

Memories of Gordon

Presents some memories of my friend Gordon Pask, noting especially his early contributions to what is now called artificial intelligence and the occasion of the NPL Symposium on…

Gordon Pask at the Open University

Gordon Pask worked with the author at the Open University and became his friend as well as colleague. Here are some recollections.

Bootstrapping knowledge representations: From entailment meshes via semantic nets to learning webs

The symbol‐based epistemology used in artificial intelligence is contrasted with the constructivist, coherence epistemology promoted by cybernetics. The latter leads to…

My Paskalia and the genesis of the Christmas IntelligenTree

This recollection traces the development of an inter‐faith dialogue modelled by Pask’s conversation theory and his own praxis.

The Robbins problem: computer proofs and human proofs

Discusses the relationship between computer proof and human proof. These issues are discussed both in general and specifically regarding the recent solution of the Robbins problem…

For Gordon: some comments on architecture and its context

Represents an approach to architectural thinking that grew out of some of my early interactions with Gordon Pask. It discusses the relationship between architecture and the…

Gordon Pask memorial speech: contributions to educational technology

Discusses Gordon Pask’s contributions to educational technology and his influences on the author’s own work.

Gordon Pask

The author recalls her friendship with Gordon Pask and his involvement in the Fun Palace project.

Learning and teaching machines and conversation theory: Some contemporary implications and ideas for research

Begins with the author’s obituary of Gordon Pask which outlines his work. The author then makes some general comments on Pask’s work on learning and teaching machines and gives a…

Some memories of Gordon

The author worked with Gordon for many years in the early days of System Research Ltd and before and knew him later at Brunel University and the Cybernetics Society. Here are some…

The limits of social conversation: A sociological approach to Gordon Pask’s conversation theory

Approaches Pask’s conversation theory from a sociological perspective. Pask’s vision of conversation as a self‐organising process can help our understanding of the emergence of…

Gordon Pask: an appreciation

As a young researcher the author met Gordon Pask who subsequently had a great influence on the author’s work. Here are some recollections.

THOUGHTSTICKER 1986: A personal history of conversation theory in software, and its progenitor, Gordon Pask

In this paper, the author revisits his excitement in learning Pask’s conversation theory that gave immediate prescriptions for the construction of training systems and adaptive…

Intelligent tutoring: from SAKI to Byzantium

Describes Byzantium, an intelligent tutoring system for teaching the concepts and skills of accounting. The generic design philosophy of Byzantium and its associated intelligent…

Gordon Pask

The author and Gordon Pask first met at Cambridge. Later, they worked together on Joan Littlewood’s Fun Palace project. Here are some memories of those days.

Adaptive recommendation and open‐ended semiosis

A recommendation system for an extended process of information retrieval in distributed information systems is proposed. This system is both a model of dynamic cognitive…

Preface

About Gordon Pask

Introduction

A message from Elizabeth Pask