Allenna Leonard is an American cybernetician, consultant and director of Team Syntegrity International, specializing in the application of Stafford Beer's Viable System Model and Syntegration. [1] She was president of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) from 2002 to 2004 [2] and president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences in 2009–2010, [3] and led the organization of its 54th annual meeting in Waterloo, Canada. Leonard is president of Metaphorum since 2022. [4]
She received a B.A. Classic liberal arts curriculum from the St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, a M.A. in Higher Education Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park, in administration with a concentration in cybernetics. [5]
Leonard is a consultant under the auspices of The Complementary Set, especially applications of the Viable System Model, a part-time University Teacher, Licensee T.S.I. and a representative of the Cwarel Isaf Institute. [5] Currently she is the Director of Team Syntegrity Inc. in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was president of the American Society for Cybernetics from 2002 to 2004, and was elected president for 2009–2010 of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. [6]
Allenna Leonard was Stafford Beer’s partner in life and at work from 1981 until his death in 2002. She states on her web page that she is committed to continuing to use and publicize his work, and that her special interest is using Syntegration as a forum for democratic dialogue, especially on issues of public importance. [5]
Allenna Leonard has published several works on cybernetics and the work of Stafford Beer. A selection:
Articles and papers, a selection:
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structure, function and role, and expressed through its relations with other systems. A system is "more than the sum of its parts" when it expresses synergy or emergent behavior.
Anthony Stafford Beer was a British theorist, consultant and professor at the Manchester Business School. He is best known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics.
William Ross Ashby was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby.
The viable system model (VSM) is a model of the organizational structure of any autonomous system capable of producing itself. It is an implementation of viable system theory. At the biological level, this model is correspondent to autopoiesis.
Charles François was a Belgian administrator, editor and scientist in the fields of cybernetics, systems theory and systems science, internationally known for his main work the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics.
The International Federation for Systems Research(IFSR) is an international federation for global and local societies in the field of systems science. This federation is a non-profit, scientific and educational agency founded in 1980, and constituted of some thirty member organizations around the globe..
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. "Management cybernetics" was first introduced by Stafford Beer in the late 1950s and introduces the various mechanisms of self-regulation applied by and to organizational settings, as seen through a cybernetics perspective. Beer developed the theory through a combination of practical applications and a series of influential books. The practical applications involved steel production, publishing and operations research in a large variety of different industries. Some consider that the full flowering of management cybernetics is represented in Beer's books. However, learning continues.
Enrique G. Herrscher is an Argentine economist, systems scientist and professor at the University of Buenos Aires.
Béla Antal Bánáthy is an American systems scientist, who teaches part-time at the International Systems Institute at the Saybrook Graduate School.
Gary S. Metcalf is an American systems scientist, organizational theorist, management consultant, and university professor. He has served as president of the International Federation for Systems Research 2010-2014.
The American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) is an American non-profit scholastic organization for the advancement of cybernetics as a science, a discipline, a meta-discipline and the promotion of cybernetics as basis for an interdisciplinary discourse. The society does this by developing and applying cybernetics’ concepts which are presented and published via its conferences and peer-reviewed publications. As a meta-discipline, it creates bridges between disciplines, philosophies, sciences, and arts. The ASC is a full member of the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR).
Lenard Raphael Troncale is an American biologist, systems theorist, Professor Emeritus of Cellular and Molecular Biology, and former Director of the Institute for Advanced Systems Studies at the California State Polytechnic University.
Kjell Samuelson was a Swedish systems scientist, Sci-Tech consultant, Professor Emeritus at the Stockholm University and Royal Institute of Technology, and a pioneer of Systems Science & Cybernetics, Communications & Informatics Technology and Global Networks.
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular processes such as feedback systems where outputs are also inputs. It is concerned with general principles that are relevant across multiple contexts, including in ecological, technological, biological, cognitive and social systems and also in practical activities such as designing, learning, and managing.
Jennifer M. Wilby is an American and UK management scientist, past director of the Centre for Systems Studies, and a senior lecturer and researcher in management systems and sciences at The Business School, University of Hull. She served as president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences for the term 2010–2011.
Project Cybersyn was a Chilean project from 1971 to 1973 during the presidency of Salvador Allende aimed at constructing a distributed decision support system to aid in the management of the national economy. The project consisted of four modules: an economic simulator, custom software to check factory performance, an operations room, and a national network of telex machines that were linked to one mainframe computer.
Viable system theory (VST) concerns cybernetic processes in relation to the development/evolution of dynamical systems: it can be used to explain living systems, which are considered to be complex and adaptive, can learn, and are capable of maintaining an autonomous existence, at least within the confines of their constraints. These attributes involve the maintenance of internal stability through adaptation to changing environments. One can distinguish between two strands such theory: formal systems and principally non-formal system. Formal viable system theory is normally referred to as viability theory, and provides a mathematical approach to explore the dynamics of complex systems set within the context of control theory. In contrast, principally non-formal viable system theory is concerned with descriptive approaches to the study of viability through the processes of control and communication, though these theories may have mathematical descriptions associated with them.
Jason Jixuan Hu, is a Chinese American cyberneticist, independent scholar and managing director of WINTOP Organizational Learning Laboratory, and organizer/facilitator of the Club of Remy(Youtube Channel). He is noted for his work on "cognitive capacity in human communication, conflict resolution and cooperation solicitation," and on view on distance education in America.
An algedonic signal is a pre-emptive message concerning pleasure or pain. An arousal mechanism can generate an algedonic signal, and thus provide an important survival mechanism to a living organism by alerting it to a threat. An example of the disastrous consequences of such a system not being in place is that of a moth attracted by the light of an open flame without recognising the danger of fire.
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