Invitation for session leaders and booking information
Programme
Morning (11:00) — Welcome and Scene Setting
Led by Peter Kawalek.
Lunch provided.
Afternoon (14:00–17:00) — Celebrating Stafford Beer at his Centenary
Celebrating his life and work: Designing Freedom, VSM, Syntegration.
Morning (09:30) — Dan Davies and The Unaccountability Machine
Society and Cybernetics.
Afternoon (13:30) — Information and Cybernetics: Badlands & State of Health Care Systems
Information and Process.
Morning (09:30) — Ethics and AI Reflections
The conference concludes at 14:00.
We welcome additional suggestions and ideas, particularly things that might get us doing as well as talking.
Lunches are provided and, as usual, we will suggest places to meet ‘Later in the Bar’ for food, drink and discussions.
About the Conversation
John Beckford has taken on the task of attempting to mastermind the event again this year.
As always the aim of The Cybernetics Conversation is to build each session around a question, proposition or challenge. The session leader, having stimulated the session with their ideas, guides elicitation of the insights, knowledge and experience of the others in the room. As usual we hope to see the development of cybernetic and systems ideas across multiple sectors — public, private, charity and social enterprises, politics and the sciences and humanities.
Themes
Cybernetics and…
1. Stafford Beer’s Centenary: Celebrating his life and work, Designing Freedom, VSM, Syntegration
2. The Unaccountability Machine: Society and Cybernetics
3. Information and Process
4. Badlands
5. Quantum Biology
6. Ethics and AI/LLM
And, of course, there are many sub-themes within each.
We need you to make your offers and suggestions so that we can create a structure through which the emerging ideas can be explored and, if appropriate, synthesised — and we will use the facilities in the rooms to capture as appropriate.
Offers to lead sessions will be greatly appreciated — particularly if accompanied by a suggested theme or thread.
Get Involved
Please let John Beckford and Peter Tuddenham know if you would like to make a contribution:
john.beckford@beckfordconsulting.com
vp@cybsoc.org
Tickets
Book your tickets on Eventbrite →
The event will run from 11:00 on Wednesday 1 July to 14:00 Friday 3 July at Loughborough University Business School. Ticket prices include lunches and refreshments but do not include accommodation.
Accommodation
In previous years most people have booked their accommodation at the Premier Inn on Southfield Road, but there are many other hotels available in Loughborough, including the Travelodge on Bridge Street and three hotels on the university campus.
Premier Inn
Travelodge
Loughborough University campus hotels