The Brain of the Future by Alexandre Pérez Casares

The ‘Age of the Cognitive Machines’ is the most drastic economic transition since the Second Industrial Revolution. This transition is driven by the confluence of multiple technological innovations –such as advanced robotics, machine learning, and the exponential growth of computation capabilities and digital communication bandwidth– which result in the ‘Rise of Intelligent Machines’, understanding ‘Machines’ as a concept beyond its physical connotations, and leveraging a change of paradigm in machine intelligence, an evolution from ‘Turing Machines’ to ‘Inference Machines.’ The new paradigm is unleashing extraordinary progress in a wide range of applications, from healthcare to transportation and even the justice system; at the same time, these new forms of intelligence are making decisions in complex ways that escape the limits of human comprehension.

This transition may result in rapid increases of productivity of goods and services, shifts in the structure of our societies and cultures, major disruptions for global commerce and the balance of international power (economic and military), a paradoxical reduction in the effectiveness of human communication, and growing income gaps driven by technological employment disruption and the nature of wealth creation. According to the Oxford Martin School, approximately 47% of total current US employment is at high risk of being impacted by computerization over the next two decades, in what would be the fastest rate of change of the labor market in the history of humanity. This process would require a significant re-design of economic and social policies together with the transformation of existing education systems, such as the foundations of primary and secondary education and the role of the university. 

Beyond the economic opportunities and challenges posed by the Age of Cognitive Machines, it may transform the role of the human species –and its current organizational structures–, and pose significant risks for the systemic viability of western democracies in a world of increasing complexity driven by intelligent machines, requiring a new paradigm of national and global governance. At a time when smart artificial agents, smartphones, smart-homes, smart-cities, wearables, factories, etc., are becoming increasingly omnipresent, shall we also expect technological progress in artificial intelligence to result in the emergence of smart-governments and nations?

 

From precision medicine to systems medicine by Christian Pristipino

“In humans, very strong interactions between quantitative and qualitative dimensions occur, in which psychological, emotional, cognitive and cultural variables invariably influence disparate biological processes within every bodily system. The result is the need for a combined bio-psycho-social/environmental approach to complex phenotyping. This more comprehensive description is achieved with systems medicine, which will enable a real transition to a more personalized model.”

Recognizing the Dangers of Simplicity Addiction by Michael Lissack

We are seldom taught that simplification has a high risk of failure. In truth, it only works up to a point, after which all that lies ahead is failure. To examine the limits of simplicity is to look at what happens when our efforts to make things fit into a sound bite, label, or keyword go awry. When simplification works, it can indeed be very effective. But simplification does not always work—so more of it is not necessarily better. And when simplification fails, it fails miserably. This talk exposes the limitations of simplification as a design choice, explores the cognitive origins of why we often get led astray in making such a design choice, and explores how we might develop a set of practical heuristics to counter the seductiveness of simplicity itself. The goal is appropriateness and balance— what cybernetics calls requisite variety, and what many design practitioners call placing context in context. I conclude with a heuristic to guide the practitioner on what to do when their efforts at simplification are failing.

http://wosc2017rome.asvsa.org/index.php/michael-lissack

Smart growth strategies by Elias G. Carayannis

The future and sustained peace, prosperity and security of the WORLD require that we pursue and accomplish a reasonable modicum of BOTH of those visions and Knowledge for Development (K4Dev) and its related proposed roadmap (K4Dev__Vision 2030) based on the concepts of Glocal (Global/Local) Network of Real and Virtual Incubators (G_RVIN) (Carayannis et al, 2005) as well as the concepts of Strategic Knowledge

WOSC 2017 Congress Follow-ups

Featured

WOSC 2017 Congress was a great success. Over 170 participants from all over the world discussed on three major themes:

– People, Technology and Governance for Sustainability
– Democracy, interactions, and organisation
– Cyber-systemic thinking, modelling and epistemology

The keynotes speeches have inspired us to rethink our perception of the world and instructed us to use systems thinking in our efforts to understand the society complexity.

The results of the Congress are multiple. Besides from exchanging views on their research achievements, the participants created valuable bonds with their peers. They can multiply their research using several publication outcomes:

The proceedings of the Congress werebe published in the book: Cybernetics and Systems: Social and Business Decisions edited by Sergio Barile, Raul Espejo, Igor Perko, Marialuisa Saviano.

WOSC 2017 related papers were submitted to the following journals.

Many thanks to all of the highly engaged participants and the organisers, that made the congress possible.

WOSC 2017 abstract submission deadline extension

WOSC2017 logo

http://wosc2017rome.asvsa.org

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Thanks to all of you who have submitted an abstract to the WOSC 17th Congress. For those who were not able to hit the August 30th deadline, we have extended it to September 30th. In the meantime, the acceptance process will be in progress and we would appreciate receiving your abstracts as early as possible.

Themes and tracks

Theme1: People, technology and governance for sustainability

  1. Human aspects of managing systems
  2. Smartness and sustainability
  3. Smart technologies and big data
  4. The Brain of the future
  5. Governance in the Anthropocene: cybersystemic possibilities

Theme 2: Democracy, interactions and organisation

  1. Community self-organization
  2. Democracy and transparency
  3. Interactions revolution: how to harmonise interactions within and between complex adaptive systems
  4. Law, commons, social dynamics
  5. Knowledge to manage the knowledge society: non explicit, non invasive and non directive management
  6. The role of emergence within organizations
  7. The role of Higher Education for Sustainable Development

Theme 3: Cyber-systemic thinking, modelling and epistemology

  1. How can systems thinking help to bring solutions to humankind problems in the 21st century?
  2. Think outside the box with Systems Dynamics
  3. Quantum Modelling
  4. Reflexivity, Second order science, and Context

Submitting an abstract:

Extended abstracts, presented at the congress will be published in the “WOSC 2017 Book of Abstracts”.

In order to submit an extended abstract, authors need to consider Author Guidelines

Refereed Publication of Congress papers

Authors with an accepted abstract will be invited to submit a full research paper and attend the Congress. Papers, presented at the Congress, will be considered for the publication in one of the following journals:

Further leading journals are under consideration for Special Issues. Please, follow updates on the website.

Instructions for full paper submission will be available in Instructions for Full Paper Submissions in the Submission option of the website.

Summary of Congress Schedule

  • 30 SEPTEMBER 2016: EXTENDED ABSTRACTS SUBMISSION DEADLINE
  • 30 OCTOBER 2016: NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE
  • 15 NOVEMBER 2016: EARLY REGISTRATION DEADLINE
  • 15 NOVEMBER 2016: REGISTRATION DEADLINE FOR ACCEPTED AUTHORS
  • 20 DECEMBER 2016: TENTATIVE CONGRESS PROGRAM
  • 10 JANUARY 2017: FULL PAPERS SUBMISSION
  • 15 JANUARY 2017: OFFICIAL CONGRESS PROGRAM
  • 25-27 JANUARY 2017: CONGRESS

Please register on http://wosc2017rome.asvsa.org/

Looking forward to seeing you in Rome,

Professor Raul Espejo
Scientific Director WOSC 2017
Director General of the WOSC
http://www.wosc.co

 

Professor Sergio Barile
Chair WOSC 2017
Sapienza, University of Rome
www.uniroma1.it