The purpose of this paper is to introduce important new web sites, one of them providing data on the WOSC President and the other on the Queen of the UK and her family. Also…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce important new web sites, one of them providing data on the WOSC President and the other on the Queen of the UK and her family. Also discussed is a video demonstrating human neural plasticity and two sites having relevance to ecology. The demonstration of neural plasticity is contrasted with a quite different demonstration of its operation in the adult rat.
Design/methodology/approach
The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.
Findings
Both of the major web sites reviewed are valuable sources of information, the second being also of special technical and aesthetic interest. Both demonstrations of plasticity may be useful in guiding speculation about underlying mechanisms. The first of the two sites dealing with ecology allows quantitative appreciation of the seriousness of the world situation, and the second describes a research facility in which partial remedies are sought.
Practical implications
Data on Robert Vallée is valuable both as a source of reference to his publications as such and in revealing the personality behind them. The “royal” web site also reveals personality and has the special technical and aesthetic interest already mentioned. It is also valuable in showing the working of a constitutional monarchy in a parliamentary democracy. The attempt to understand neural plasticity has long been a major challenge in neuroscience. The seriousness of the world ecological situation is powerfully demonstrated and the research facility described offers some amelioration.
Originality/value
It is hoped that this paper is a valuable periodic review.
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The founders of cybernetics and systems are presented, among them N. Wiener, W.S. McCulloch and L. von Bertalanffy. Some precursors are cited from antiquity to 20th century. The…
Abstract
The founders of cybernetics and systems are presented, among them N. Wiener, W.S. McCulloch and L. von Bertalanffy. Some precursors are cited from antiquity to 20th century. The basic concepts are exposed: feedback, quantity of information, requisite variety, homeostasis, local and global points of view, oprn systems, autopoiesis. The roles of the observer and of the actor are emphasized. Future is considered in three directions: development of epistemology and of praxiology, symbiosis of man and machine, role of requisite variety in the survival of mankind.
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To present the concept of inverse transfer of the internal structures of a dynamical system to the perception it has of its environment and itself.
Abstract
Purpose
To present the concept of inverse transfer of the internal structures of a dynamical system to the perception it has of its environment and itself.
Design/methodology/approach
We use the formalism of mathematical operators acting on functional spaces.
Findings
The concept of inverse transfer clarifies many aspects of the subjectivity of perception (epistemological or praxiological). The decisions taken according to this perception modifies both the environment and the system, generating a feedback loop and showing that the co‐evolution of the system and its environment is a fixed point of an adequate operator.
Originality/value
Our research shows the importance of a synthesis of observation and decision in the understanding of perception, giving rise to an epistemo‐praxiology.
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Jozica Knez‐Riedl, Matjaz Mulej and Robert G. Dyck
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…
Abstract
Purpose
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 apply inter‐disciplinarity incorporating many, mutually partly different and therefore interdependent, viewpoints for requisite holism. To do so, they should use systems thinking. But the modern diversity of systems theories, including cybernetics, opens the issue: which systems theory and/or cybernetic should one use? Aims to discuss the dialectical systems theory (DST), its definition of holism and its definition of the seven principal groups of notions making systems thinking possible, when applied in a synergy. This may lead to a requisite holism, and hence to efficiency and effectiveness of the work on and of the CSR; it has often been done so in the 30 years of DST.
Design/methodology/approach
Desk research and indirect field research were used. The concept of CSR is a rather soft topic. It demands a holistic treatment and hence a plural theoretical foundation following recent trends in economics (business and environmental), management as well as systems thinking. The problem was investigated empirically from the systems‐oriented perspective supported by DST, because it tackles human personality and impacts over it and by it, rather than offers tools for people to use for whatever purposes.
Findings
The CSR concept belongs in sociocyberbetics linking cybernetics, systems theory and social aspects of the reality. The definition of CSR requires humans to think, decide, and act on a very broad basis rather than to reduce their horizons to the narrow habit of businesses to find profit only essential. CSR links the hard‐systemic and soft‐systemic versions of modern systems theories. It could be seen as an attribute of human personality and as a process between humans and organisations.
Research limitations/implications
As CSR has many dimensions (economic, environmental and social ones, at least), the research focused on the requisitely holistic performance of an organisation being aware of diversified needs of multi‐stakeholders (including its own employees, as well).
Practical implications
The research findings and conclusions can support endeavors to implement the CSR concept in practice: in organisations, among different stakeholders and broader public audience (including governmental institutions and communities).
Originality/value
The paper provides the theoretical foundation to raise and improve socially responsible activities by supporting a maturing management philosophy approaching the viable, balanced organisation.
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To consider aspects of a theory of systemic construction by discussing two concepts which will assist in our understanding of the surrounding world which it is considered is made…
Abstract
Purpose
To consider aspects of a theory of systemic construction by discussing two concepts which will assist in our understanding of the surrounding world which it is considered is made of both systemic and non‐systemic entities.
Design/methodology/approach
Considers how these entities (metasystem, network, transitron etc.) can be conceived and defined. Systemic frames notions are presented and examples of systems given. Discusses the historic use of the word “system” and systemic thinking and its varieties.
Findings
Discovered that on the basis of these concepts, an understanding of the surrounding world can be achieved which is not homogeneous but made of both systemic and non‐systemic entities. These can change when certain systemic properties are reached as well as in their specific degrees in their limitations and paradoxes.
Originality/value
Introduces an original approach to the life support system by proposing concepts that are discussed and defined and that will provide cyberneticians and systemists with a revised view of systemic thinking.
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Matjaz Mulej, Vojko Potocan, Zdenka Zenko, Stefan Kajzer, Dusko Ursic, Jozica Knez‐Riedl, Monty Lynn and Jozef Ovsenik
Ludwig von Bertalanffy created general systems theory in an effort to counter the oversight and endangerment of humankind by disciplinary specialization. Bertalanffy desired for a…
Abstract
Ludwig von Bertalanffy created general systems theory in an effort to counter the oversight and endangerment of humankind by disciplinary specialization. Bertalanffy desired for a holistic worldview and openness to replace overspecialization. Although widely cited and regarded, his concept prevailed only at a fictitious level, mostly as a tool inside specialization, which many scholars are neither able to overcome nor complement with interdisciplinary, creative co‐operation. Similarities (isomorphisms) are not enough. Here, a system of seven groups of systems thinking principles, which serve as a framework for restoring Bertalanffian systems thinking without his exaggerations is presented.