Recordings of most recent events are available on the Cybernetics Society YouTube channel.
Have we entered a New Normal? The physics, the feedbacks, the implications and the responses to our changing climate
The talk walked through the physics of climate change using the very latest satellite data to show how the planet is out of energy balance, is accumulating energy at an accelerating rate, and how this energy is taken up as heat in different Earth systems. The up-coming ‘Goliath’ El Niño effects were looked at with reference to past events and the phenomenon of temperature ratcheting uncovered, leading to predictions for the second half of this decade. Tipping points followed, focussing on the ocean currents and Amazon rainforest, as well as the economic consequences of the continued warming. The talk then looked at the triad of measures we still have available to combat the predicament — decarbonising the economy, removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and deploying solar geoengineering — before asking whether this is a new normal.
About the speaker. Tom has a PhD in neural computing for signal processing from Brunel University, back before it was called AI. He has spent the last 25 years working with over 200 grant-funded projects, including carbon capture, smart energy grids and energy efficiency. Now retired, he writes on climate science on his Substack Climate Uncovered.
The Cybernetics Conversation 2026
The Society’s annual in-person conversation. Three days marking Stafford Beer’s centenary, with strands on Information and Cybernetics, Badlands, and Ethics and AI. On 2 July, at the Centre for Information Management, Dan Davies gave the provocation “Taming the Unaccountability Machine: Cybernetics and Public Administration”.
How might Cybernetic Thinking inform Quantum Information Theory?
Cybernetics Live online seminar. A gedanken experiment asks whether living systems are quantum at their foundation, exploring a tertiary DNA structure as a possible ‘biological qubit’ — and what cellular computation might mean for the very definition of information.
Anticipating the human and social consequences of next generation AI — before it’s too late
Cybernetics Live online seminar. Will AI’s rapid pace continue or hit a wall? What problems arise without sufficient guardrails? And how might global agreements steer towards beneficial rather than catastrophic general intelligence?
Can Evolution Be Predicted, and If So Can It Lead to AI?
Cybernetics Live online seminar. A new approach to evolutionary prediction, from bacterial symbiosis to multicellular life — and what it tells us about the advent of artificial intelligence.
The Servants of Nature, and Artificial Interpreters
Modelling multi-disciplinarity for science and how AI will help. Kritz discusses the distinction between systems and organisations, why information (distinguishing Shannon-Weaver and Kolmogorov notions) is essential to thinking about these models clearly, and how the biological characteristics of our brains affect scientific creativity.
Editing the Sun -- How Indoor Light Lost Touch with Evolution
Within a single human lifetime we abandoned the broad-spectrum light that shaped all life on Earth and replaced it with the spectrally impoverished output of fluorescent tubes and white LEDs. We declared the change efficient and moved on. Yet the biosphere evolved under a very different light regime -- one our bodies still expect. What happens when we remove half the spectrum without realising it?
Redesigning Space Governance for the New Space Era: A Cybernetic Approach
This research focuses on governance in the space sector, using a cybernetic approach to identify systemic pathologies, understand development, and provide predictive insights in the context of commercialisation, private-sector participation, and militarisation of space.
Emergent Language and Systemic Understanding: AI-Augmented Deliberations Through a Cybernetic Lens
Exploring the application of generative AI in systems-oriented deliberations, with focus on Gordon Pask's Conversation Theory and language emergence in complex socio-ecological contexts. Drawing from collaborative inquiry into water governance systems.
Badlands Event Three: Eudaimonia
The third installment of the Badlands mini-series exploring technology for malignant purposes and cybernetic responses. Giles Herdale outlined his national review of Violence Against Women and Girls from a System Five perspective. Katie Muldoon explored how humans and systems can cope with complexity while nurturing eudaimonic pathways.
Decoding Reality -- Quantum Information
A world-leading researcher exploring quantum information and its implications for cybernetics, variety, entropy, and our understanding of reality.
EcoCybernetics: Re-rooting Cybernetics in the Living
A provocation proposing that ecocybernetics focuses on cybernetics' ontological rather than historic origins, its full scope of explanatory power, and its potential to resolve important issues facing humanity today.
The Fundamentals of Cognition Based User Interface Design
A pioneering STEM Educator exploring cognition-based interface design, earned her PhD in Cybernetics from Reading University.
Badlands Series #2 -- Privacy
The second installment of the Badlands mini-series, focusing on privacy in the digital age.