great References https://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/1998_origins_purposes_se...
Ackoff, Russell L. and Rivett, Patrick (1963). A manager’s guide to operations research. New York: Wiley.
Ackoff, Russell L. and Emery, Fred E. (1972). On purposeful systems. Chicago: Aldine‑Atherton.
Ackoff, Russell L. (1981). Creating the corporate future: Plan or be planned for. New York: Wiley.
Ackoff, Russell L., E.V. Finnel and J. Gharajedaghi (1984). A guide to controlling your corporation’s future. New York: Wiley.
Ackoff, Russell L. (1994). The democratic corporation: A radical prescription for recreating corporate America and rediscovering success. New York: Oxford University Press.
Allison, Graham (1971). Essence of decision: Explaining the Cuban missile crisis. Boston: Little-Brown.
Argyris, Chris and Schön, Donald A. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Argyris, Chris (September 1976). “Single-loop and double-loop models in research on decision making,” Administrative sciences quarterly. Vol. 21(3), pp. 363-375.
Argyris, Chris and Schön, Donald A. (1978). Organizational learning: A theory of action perspective. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Argyris, Chris and Schön, Donald A. (1996). Organizational learning II: Theory, method, and practice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Ashby, Ross (1956). An introduction to cybernetics. London: Chapman and Hall.
Ashby, Ross (1960). Design for a brain. Second edition. New York: Wiley.
Axelrod, Robert (1984). The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Bateson, Gregory (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine.
Beer, Stafford (1966). Decision and control: The meaning of operational research and management cybernetics. New York: Wiley.
Beer, Stafford (1972). Brain of the firm: A development in management cybernetics. New York: Herder and Herder.
Beer, Stafford (1975). Platform for change: A message from Stafford Beer. New York: Wiley.
Bell, Daniel (1973) The coming of post-industrial society: A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic Books.
Boguslaw, Robert (1965). The new utopians: A study of system design and social change. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Boulding, Kenneth (1956). The image: Knowledge in life and society. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Boulding, Kenneth (1978). Ecodynamics: A new theory of societal evolution. Beverley Hills: Sage Publications.
Box, George E. and Jenkins, G. M. (1970). Time series analysis for forecasting and control. San Francisco: Holden Day.
Brown, Anthony Cave (1975) Bodyguard of lies. New York: Harper and Row.
Brown, G. Spencer (1969). Laws of Form. London: George Allen and Unwin.
Brown, Robert G. (1959). Statistical forecasting for inventory control. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Buckley, Walter, ed. (1968) Modern systems research for the behavioral scientist. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co.
Checkland, Peter (1981). Systems thinking: Systems practice. New York: Wiley.
Christofides, N. (1973). “The Optimum Traversal of a Graph,” Omega, 1, 719-732.
Churchman, C. West, Ackoff, Russell L., and Arnoff, E. Leonard (1957). Introduction to operations research. New York: Wiley.
Churchman, C. West (1961). Prediction and optimal decision. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Churchman, C. West (1968). The systems approach. New York : Dell Pub. Co.
Churchman, C. West (1971). The design of inquiring systems: Basic concepts of systems in organizations. New York: Basic Books.
Cleland, David I. and King, William R. (1968). Systems analysis and project management. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Cleland, David I. and King, William R. (1972). Management: A systems approach. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Conant, Roger and Ashby, Ross (1970). “Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system,” International Journal of Systems Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, 89-97.
Conant, Roger (1981). Mechanisms of intelligence: Ross Ashby’s writings on cybernetics. Seaside, CA: Intersystems.
Crosby, Philip (1979). Quality is free. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Dantzig, George Bernard (1963). Linear programming and extensions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Deming, W. Edwards (1960). Sample design in business research. New York: Wiley.
Deming, W. Edwards (1986). Out of the crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT, Center for Advanced Engineering Study.
Deming, W. Edwards (1993). The new economics for industry, government, education. Cambridge: MIT Center for Advanced Engineering Study.
Deutsch, Karl W. (1966). The nerves of government: Models of political communication and control. New York: The Free Press.
Dickson, Paul (1971). Think tanks. New York: Atheneum.
Feigenbaum, Armand V. (May 1957). “The challenge of total quality control,” Industrial quality control. 17-23.
Fisher, Ronald (1935) The design of experiments. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.
Forrester, Jay W. (1961). Industrial dynamics. Portland, OR: Productivity Press.
Forrester, Jay W. (1969). Urban dynamics. Portland, OR: Productivity Press.
Forrester, Jay W. (1971). World dynamics. (second edition, 1973) Portland, OR: Productivity Press.
Goodman, Michael (1974). Study notes in system dynamics. Cambridge, MA: MIT. Press.
Heims, Steve J. (1991) The cybernetics group. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Howard, Nigel (1971). Paradoxes of rationality: Theory of metagames and political behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ishikawa, Kaoru (1976). Guide to quality control. Tokyo: Asian Productivity Organization.
Jantsch, Erich (1975). Design for evolution: Self-organization and planning in the life of human systems. New York: Braziler.
Juran, J. M. (1944). Bureaucracy, a challenge to better management: A constructive analysis of management effectiveness in the federal government. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Juran, J. M. (1945). Management of inspection and quality control. New York: Harper & Brothers.
Juran, J. M. (1955). Case studies in industrial management. New York: McGraw‑Hill.
Juran, J. M. (1964). Managerial breakthrough: A new concept of the manager's job. New York: McGraw‑Hill.
Juran, J. M., and Gryna, Frank M. (1970). Quality planning and analysis: From product development through usage. New York: McGraw‑Hill.
Katz, Daniel and Kahn, Robert L. (1966). The social psychology of organizations. New York: Wiley.
Kleinrock, L. (1975). Queueing systems. New York: Wiley.
Klir, George J. (1969). An approach to general systems theory. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
Kuhn, Thomas S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Luce, R. Duncan and Raiffa, Howard (1957). Games and decisions: Introduction and critical survey. New York: Wiley.
Machol, Robert E., et al., ed. (1965). System engineering handbook. New York: McGraw-Hill.
McCulloch, Warren, and Pitts, Walter (1943). “A logical calculus of the ideas imminent in nervous activity,” reprinted in Embodiments of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1965.
McCulloch, Warren (1965). Embodiments of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Meadows, Dennis, et al. (1974). Dynamics of growth in a finite world. Cambridge, MA: MIT. Press.
Meadows, Dennis (1998). Letter dated January 13, 1998.
Meadows, Donella H. and Meadows, Dennis (1972). The limits to growth: A report for the Club of Rome's project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.
Meadows, Donella H., Richardson, John and Bruckmann, Gerhart (1982). Groping in the dark : The first decade of global modeling. New York : Wiley.
Meadows, Donella H., Meadows, Dennis, and Randers, Jorgen (1992). Beyond the limits : Confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future. Post Mills, VT. : Chelsea Green Pub.
Meier, Richard L. (1956). Science and economic development: new patterns of living. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Meier, Richard L. (1962). A communications theory of urban growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Mesarovic, Mihajlo and Pestel, Eduard (1974). Mankind at the turning point. New York: Dutton.
Miller, James G. (1978). Living Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mitroff, Ian I. and Blankenship, L. Vaughan (1973). “On the methodology of the holistic experiment: An approach to the conceptualization of large-scale social experiments,”Technological forecasting and social change. 4, 339-353.
Odum, Howard T. and Elisabeth C. (1976). Energy basis for man and nature. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Parsons, Talcott (1951). The social system. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Peccei, Aurelio (1969). The chasm ahead. New York: Macmillan, 1969.
Platt, John R. (1966). The step to man. New York: Wiley.
Platt, John (November 28, 1969). “What is to be done?” Science, v.166.
Quade, E. S. (1971). “A history of cost-effectiveness analysis,” Paper P-4557. Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation.
Raiffa, Howard (1968). Decision analysis: Introductory lectures on choices under uncertainty. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Rapoport, Anatol (1960). Fights, games, and debates. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Rapoport, Anatol (1986). General system theory: Essential concepts and applications. Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Abacus Press.
Revans, R. W. (1980). Action learning: New techniques for management. London: Blond and Briggs.
Rosenblueth, A., Wiener, N., and Bigelow, J. (1943). “Behavior, purpose and teleology” reprinted in Walter Buckley, ed. (1968). Modern systems research for the behavioral scientist: A sourcebook. Chicago: Aldine Press.
Saaty, Thomas L. (1961). Elements of queueing theory, with applications. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Schlesinger, Leonard (1980). Quality of work life and the supervisor. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Schon, Donald A. (1967). Technology and change; The new Heraclitus. New York, Delacorte Press.
Schon, Donald (1979) “Organizational learning” in Beyond method: Strategies for social research (ed. G. Morgan), pp. 114-127. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Schon, Donald (1987) Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Senge, Peter M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday.
Senge, Peter M., et al. (1994). The fifth discipline field book. New York: Doubleday.
Shafer, G. (1976). A mathematical theory of evidence. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Shannon, Claude and Warren Weaver (1949) The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Shewhart, Walter A. with the editorial assistance of W. Edwards Deming (1939) Statistical method from the viewpoint of quality control. Washington, DC: The Graduate School, the Department of Agriculture.
Simon, Herbert A. (1957). Models of man: Social and rational. New York: Wiley.
Toffler, Alvin (1980) The third wave. New York: Morrow.
Turing, Alan (October 1950). “Computing machinery and intelligence,” Mind.
Umpleby, Stuart A. (1990). “The science of cybernetics and the cybernetics of science,”Cybernetics and Systems. Vol. 21, 109-121.
Umpleby, Stuart A. (1991). “Strategies for winning acceptance of second order cybernetics,” International Symposium on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics, Baden-Baden, Germany, August 12-18, 1991.
Umpleby, Stuart A. (1997). “Cybernetics of conceptual systems,” Cybernetics and Systems. Vol. 28, 635-651.
von Bertalanffy, Ludwig (1968). General system theory: Foundations, development, applications. New York: George Braziller.
von Foerster, Heinz, ed. with George Zopf (1962). Principles of self-organization. New York: Pergamon Press.
von Foerster, Heinz (1981). Observing systems. Seaside, CA: Intersystems.
von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar (1944) Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Waddington, C. H. (1973). Operations research in world war II: Operations research against the u-boat. London: Elek.
Walton, Mary (1986). The Deming management method. New York: Perigee Books.
Watzlawick, Paul, ed. (1984). The invented reality : How do we know what we believe we know? : Contributions to constructivism. New York : Norton.
Weinberg, Gerald M. (1975). An introduction to general systems thinking. New York: Wiley.
Wiener, Norbert (1948) Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine. New York: Wiley.
Weiner, Norbert (1950). The human use of human beings: Cybernetics and society. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Winterbotham, Frederick William (1974). The ultra secret. New York : Harper & Row.
Zeleny, Milan, ed. (1981). Autopoiesis, a theory of living organizations. New York: North Holland.
|
Table 1. Chronological Listing of a Sampling of Important Historical Contributions to Cybernetics and Systems Thinking |
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Year |
General Systems Theory |
The Systems Approach |
Operations Research |
System Dynamics |
Organizational Learning |
Total Quality Management |
Cybernetics |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1939-1949 |
|
|
Von Neumann, Theory of Games |
|
|
Shewhart Statistical Method
Juran Bureaucracy
Juran Management of Inspection |
McCulloch, “A Logical Calculus”
Wiener Cybernetics
Shannon Mathematical Theory
|
1950-1959 |
Boulding The Image |
Churchman, Operations Research |
Luce, Games and Decisions
Brown Statistical Forecasting for Inventory Control |
|
Simon Models of Man |
Juran Case Studies
Feigenbaum “The Challenge of TQ Control”
|
Wiener Human Use of Human Beings
Turing “Computing Machinery”
Ashby Design for a Brain |
1960-1969 |
Rapoport Fights, Games and Debates
Duetsch Nerves of Government
Buckley, Modern Systems Research
Von Bertalanffy General System Theory
Klir Approach to GST |
Churchman Prediction and Optional Decision
Churchman Systems Approach |
Saaty Elements of Queueing Theory
Ackoff, Manager’s Guide to OR
Dantzig Linear Programming
Machol System Engineering Hdbk.
Boguslaw The New Utopians
Raifa Decision Analysis |
Forrester IndustrialDynamics
Forrester Urban Dynamics
|
Schon Technology and Change |
Deming Sample Design in Business Research
Juran Managerial Breakthrough
|
Ashby Introduction to Cybernetics
Von Foerster, Principles of Self-Organization
McCulloch, Embodiments of Mind
Beer Decision and Control
Brown Laws of Form
|
1970-1981 |
Howard Paradoxes of Rationality
Jantsch Design for Evolution
Weinberg General Systems Thinking
Odum, Energy Basis for Man and Nature
Miller Living Systems
Boulding Ecodynamics |
Churchman Design of Inquiring Systems
Ackoff On Purposeful Systems
Checkland Systems Thinking
Ackoff Creating the Corporate Future |
Box, Time Series Analysis
Quade, “History of Cost-effectiveness Analysis”
Christofides “Optimum Traversal of a Graph”
Waddington OR in WWII
Kleinrock Queueing Systems
Shafer Mathematical Theory of Evidence |
Forrester World Dynamics
Meadows, The Limits of Growth
Meadows Dynamics of Growth
Mesarovic Mankind at the Turning Point
Goodman Study Notes in System Dynamics |
Allison Essence of Decision
Argyris, Theory in Practice
Argyris “Single-Loop and Double-Loop Models”
Argyris, Organizational Learning
Schon “Organizational Learning”
Revans Action Learning |
Juran Quality Planning and Analysis
Ishikawa Guide to Quality Control
Crosby Quality is Free
Schlesinger Quality of Work Life and the Supervisor |
Bateson Steps to an Ecology of Mind
Beer Brain of the Firm
Beer Platform for Change
Conant, Mechanisms of Intelligence
Von Foerster Observing Systems |
|
|||||||
Note: An author’s name followed by a comma indicates that there are co-authors. See the reference section for complete citation. |
Tags:
My dream: everyone experiences Harrison Owen OpenSpace After%20the%20Rage.pdf
IF SCHOOLS were child centric they would make age relevant interventions:
if anyone is illiterate at age 6 it only takes 90 days to change that - best of all a literate kid can be main helper in 20 minute session - see sunita gandhi
finacial literacy would be practicsed from age 8 - see aflatoun ( works in 100 countries
from age 10 pre-teens would have access to pfysical and mental health studies designed peer to peer -see Lancet
no kid would leave primary school without knowing how open space meetings/teamwork is facilitated
teachers would be celebrated for clarifying which skills involve experiential learning not classroom examination - while there is some recognition that music and sports involve practice, its shocking that coding isnt valued this way ..
==============
Do you have life-changing moment to share? - what was it and what did you think or do differently after it?
example until 9/11, i assumed that (good) futures are happening somewhere in the world and would be searched out so that all could communally replicate them; === 9/11 caused me to question whether global connectivity will give us time to find sustainable solutions for our kids- i became particulaly interested in places where good education leaps appeared but did not get app'd the world over - one example actually goes back to my favorite 1990s advances in schools that a small cliuster of new zealand schools pioneered - download it here https://oiipdf.com/download/the-learning-revolution
i welcome discussion of this book's parts at any time rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk if you have a solution every community that develops youth could be cooperational
in 1984our book with economist editors 2025report made the case for 40 year commitment to every child identifying own skils dashboard and maximising AI curation of this- we valued this as sustainability critical worldwide cooperation - we see no logic for changing this concern
== we live in an age where most up to half of knowhow of techforgood changes every 3 years - we needed mindsets for exploration not for being standard examined; a nation that makes its college students its largest debt class is likely to collapse economically socially environmentally if web3 is designed for celebrating sustainability cooperation; and if web3 is not designed for neough yout to linkin the first sustainability generation then we are all heading the way of the dodo
I am learn to learn
TECH - What is IT? and which exponential multipliers most impact human and natural futures?
AI >. silicon chip singularity (ie when one chip > one brain in pure analytical capacity) - science fictiion no moore
who programs the ai - the race to include lost voices eg girls- the world of statistics re=-examined like never before (eg previously mass statistics very weak at coding meaining from numbers)
Biotech >> Affective science (loveq and emotional intelligence remains human's unique edge over artificials for at least 10 more years!)
Some people say that Virtual or Augmented Reality has advanced at its best so far in last 12 months that there are hardly any qualified teachers only pioneering explorers- does this matter - well its VR which is your gateway to web3 - intead of just a mobile device you will like wear a visual sensor system; equally others argue that you shouldnt worry about how fast you put googles on - what you should want is to take back ownbership of what you spend time creating virually- look at the small print of the big platforms you probably dont own anything without them..maybe this is a generation issue bu interstingly the met-generation can now work on chnaging anything that old systems are destroying (eg climate) ...t
IOT which things will now have brains and be as mobile connected as you are
Crypto - can communities celebrate financiang their own most urgent sustainability cooperations? if they dont who wil?
Cyber >> Drone - opportunities and threats of public spaces- first in spaces like the arctic circle if we dont use drones we will get no warning before the big meltdown
-the mkist memorable western campus event i attended in 2010s was tufts colllaboratory summit convened mainly by arctic circle youth under 25;
one of the main debates how to help teachers in arctic circle schools empower their students to use virtual reality to visit other arctic circles schools communities; many of the changes and solutions are analogous; I am reminded by educators leading the compilation of virtual realty libraries of the DICE acronym - a reen might want to do something dangerous like climb everest, why not VR simulate that? there are impossible things a trainee doctor will never be able to travel inside a humans gut but that can be VR'd; there are catastropghic simulations - you would rid the world of bees just to test if donald is wrong about nature being more powerful than he is, you can simulate it; or the future of smart tourism may be curation of what a community is proudest of being visited for - this way ecotourism, cultural appreciation exchanges can be twinned to maximise celebration of each other- and by the way friends of the tourist can join in virtually- of corse this raises a metaverse question - that Hong Kong is leading the world on
being 100% public - good and bad hacs- note context matters - context 1 smart city context 2 isolated vilalge no moore context 3 make a huge land safe at borders
3D printing aka additive engineering
Big Data Small by market tech sector Leapfrogging
Nano cf einstein - to innovate science model more micro
Blockchain
Downloads from MIT Innovations journal
Volume 2
downloads library 1: MIT innovations journal special issue youth economics opportunities
© 2025 Created by chris macrae. Powered by