The Cybernetics Society is a UK-based

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

that exists to promote the understanding of

Cybernetics Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular causal processes such as feedback and recursion, where the effects of a system's actions (its outputs) return as inputs to that system, influencing subsequent action. It is concerned with ...

. The core activity of the Cybernetics Society is the organization and facilitation of scientific meetings, conferences, and social events. The society's website provides information and news items for professionals in the field and the general audience in order to improve the understanding of cybernetics and associated disciplines. The society was founded at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

by Dr Haneef Fatmi, Dr Kevin Clifton, Dr David Hayes, Dr Alan Hill, and Dr Christopher Harris. The society is authorised following the Friendly Societies Act 1974 and members and fellows of the Society can use the credentials of MCybS and FCybS. Notable members of the society include Martin Smith who for many years was the President and Dr D.J. Stewart who has been the Vice President.

Past Chairmen and Presidents

Source: * 1968-1976 Haneef Fatmi * 1976-1979 Gordon Pask * 1979-1984 Igor Aleksander * 1984-1995 Haneef Fatmi * 1995-1999 Brian Warburton * 1999-2020 Martin Smith * 2020- present (?) John Beckford Fellows on the Board of Directors of WOSC: - The World Organisation of Systems & Cybernetics: http://www.cybsoc.org/wosc/ Professor B.H. Rudall (Director of the Norbert Wiener Institute) Professor Martin Smith (President of the Cybernetics Society). Among the activities of the Society are: * ''Annual Conference'': Annual conferences of the Cybernetics Society are held since 1973. * ''CYBCOM'': CYBCOM is a Cybernetics discussion group. * ''Fellows of the Cybernetics Society'': Some of the numerous fellows are Ranulph Glanville, Charles Hampden-Turner, Mick Ashby ( Ethical regulator), Dr D.J. Stewart (

Nudge theory Nudge theory is a concept in behavioral economics, decision making, behavioral policy, social psychology, consumer behavior, and related behavioral sciences that proposes adaptive designs of the decision environment (choice architecture) as ways t ...

), Dr James Wilk (

), Dr Martin Smith and Dr David Dewhurst. * ''Honorary fellows'' : Among those awarded by the Cybernetics Society are: Eric Ash,

Anthony Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at Manchester Business School. He is known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics, and for his ...

Margaret Boden Margaret Ann Boden (born 26 November 1936) is a British academic who is a Research Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, where her work embraces the fields of artificial intelligence, psyc ...

, James W. Black,

John Carew Eccles Sir John Carew Eccles (27 January 1903 – 2 May 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist and philosopher who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. He shared the prize with Andrew Huxley and Alan Lloy ...

James Lovelock James Ephraim Lovelock (26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022) was an English independent scientist, environmentalist and futurist. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the Earth functions as a self-regulating syst ...

Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, Philosophy of science, philosopher of science and Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics i ...

, Horace Barlow and

Abdus Salam Mohammad Abdus Salam Salam adopted the forename "Mohammad" in 1974 in response to the anti-Ahmadiyya decrees in Pakistan, similarly he grew his beard. (; ; 29 January 192621 November 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist. He shared the 1 ...

. Recent awardees include Stephen Brewis,

David Deutsch David Elieser Deutsch ( ; ; born 18 May 1953) is a British physicist at the University of Oxford, often described as the "father of quantum computing". He is a visiting professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics at the Centre for ...

Fredmund Malik Fredmund Malik (born September 1, 1944 in Lustenau, Reichsgau Tirol-Vorarlberg, Tyrol-Vorarlberg) is an Austrian economist with focus on management science and the founder and chairman of a management consultancy (Malik Management) in St. Gallen. ...

Humberto Maturana Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Some name him a second-order cybernetics theoretician alongside the likes of Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Brün and Ern ...

and Kevin Warwick. * '' Kybernetes'': The Society is working together with the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics on ''Kybernetes'', The international journal of cybernetics, systems and management sciences. *''IFSR'': They are a member of the International Federation for Systems Research.

''Enacting Cybernetics''

The society publishes an open access journal, ''Enacting Cybernetics'', hosted by Ubiquity Press. The journal is focused on "exploring and developing the many ways in which cybernetics may be practiced in the world."https://enacting-cybernetics.org/

References

External links

Cybernetics Society homepage

Enacting Cybernetics

{{authority control Cybernetics Learned societies of the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1968 Systems science societies 1968 establishments in the United Kingdom