Over the years I've accumulated a small library (<~4000 volumes)... among these are many fine books on Cybernetics, General Systems Theory, and Systems Thinking....
Some of the books that should be considered for any 'serious' cybernetics library are covered in this lens.
There is also a section of "classics" that are available now, free, on-line that are fairly difficult to find otherwise.
Online Books
- Introduction to Cybernetics
- A classic book (W. Ross Ashby - 1956)about cybernetics that is freely available in Acrobat PDF format from the Principia Cybernetica Web which states "It explains the basic principles with concrete examples, elementary mathematics and exercises for the reader. It does not require any mathematics beyond the basic high school level. Although simple, the book formulates principles at a high level of abstraction."
- Chronicles of Wizard Prang by Stafford Beer
- This Web-based version of 'Chronicles of Wizard Prang' has been approved by the Cwarel Isaf Institute, who hold Stafford Beer's intellectual property rights.
The original, paper-based, 'Chronicles of Wizard Prang' (first published in 1989) has been adapted for the Web by Ian Perry (during 2003/2004). - Macroscope
- Principia Cybernetica Web now offers, on the web, the complete text and drawings of the book "The Macroscope" by Joel de Rosnay. It was originally published in 1979 by Harper & Row, (New York), but is now out of print.
This book is an excellent, easy to read introduction to cybernetics and systems thinking, with applications to living organisms, the economy and the world as a whole. - Making Work Systems Better: A Practitioner's Reflections
- From the Author's (Luc Hoebeke) notes to this Internet edition:
"The concepts and ideas in the book look at the world of organisations as intrinsically small in scale, whatever the globalisation and huge scale rhetoric used. As human beings, we are only able to work on a human scale. We are limited to our three bits parallel processing brains and to the span of attention they provide us with. All these small scale decisions and actions may have huge effects: but these effects are mostly unintended, because we deal with " non-trivial " machines in the words of Sommerhof or Autopoietic systems in the words of Maturana and Varela. This makes the idea that we have control over the systems we manage visibly preposterous.
The only way a manager can do a good job is by being aware that he/she is in the centre of various networks of relations and that the only thing he/she can manage is his/her side of the relationships, being sensitive and perceptive as an observer and listener to his/her environment. And last but not least, a good manager never forgets that he/she is part of self-regulating nets and not outside them."
Originally published in 2004 but when it went out of print print and Wiley decided not to reprint the book, the author sought to take back the rights with the idea to make the book available on the net.... - Designing Freedom
- This is the text of six radio broadcasts by Stafford Beer (given in the autumn of 1973) as the thirteenth series of Massey Lectures which were established in 1961 by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)to enable distinguished authorities in fields of general interest and importance to present the results of original study or research.
Online Papers
- What is Cybernetics?
- Professor Stafford Beer address (October 2001) delivered at the University of Valladolid, Spain on the ocassion of the university bestowing the the high honour of Doctor Honoris Causa.
Discusses popular notions and genuine difficulties. Looks at the origins, derivations and definitions of cybernetics. Considers intrinsic control and socio-Economic Governance in real-time. Relates cybernetics to the current world situation. - Systems Theory and Cybernetics
- Considers systems theory and cybernetics to be a solid basis for transdisciplinarity in management education and research.
- Cybernetic Components:
- The authors take the position that Cybernetics offers a theoretical basis for the development of components, component frameworks, and component framework frameworks. Although not recognized as such, Cybernetic principles are currently used in successful software. A goal in proposing Cybernetics for component design is to permit the development of organic software systems to meet increasingly complex application requirements.
- Managing Complexity through Recursion
- Recursion is a well known concept within computer science and mathematics. In business management it is rarely used explicitly.
This paper demonstrates the broad applicability of recursion to managing complextity, especially in business - Reflections of a Cybernetician on the Practice of Planning
- Stafford Beer gives his reflections, as a cybernetician, on the practice of planning in a presentation directed at a professional audience of planners.
- Man in a garrulous silence
- Stafford Beer wrote this piece in 1982 for a closed meeting of scholars.
It provides an insight into the thinking of the time and in particular to the contributions of the author to systems and cybernetics. Illustrates the challenge of technology to humankind and sees the coming of a second Tower of Babel which is as counter-productive as the first.
Believed it was necessary to consider practical strategies for change.
Provides a schematic framework for the discussion of the social cybernetics of the human condition.
Considers a basic stance, and the application of rules detected by cybernetic scholarship. Outlines strategies for inducing change and examines new dimensions for planning. Emphasizes the importance of regarding planning as a matter of obtaining recognition of the frameworks that have been introduced and then facilitating choice. - Principles of the self-organizing system
- Classic paper by Ross Ashby who was described in the introduction to this reprint as:
"The brilliant British psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and mathematician Ross Ashby was one of the pioneers in early and mid-phase cybernetics and thereby one of the leading progenitors of modern complexity theory"
Jeffrey Goldstein - Business cybernetics: a provocative suggestion
- "There is a field needing both cybernetics and systems theory: business as one way to viability - "business cybernetics" might have to emerge. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue."
"Links both cybernetics and systems to an emerging "business cybernetics" in an innovative approach." - Modelling the regulative role of business processes with use and misuse cases
- The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for understanding value-added and abuse prevention activities in business processes.
"In this paper, we present an innovative theoretical framework based on general systems thinking (GST) and cybernetics. The framework explains business processes as a mechanism through which an organization regulates its relationships with its stakeholders. This framework provides the necessary background for modelling business processes with a technique that models value creation and abuse prevention activities with use cases, and potential abuses with misuse cases. This technique is inherited from requirements engineering (RE). It helps in the design or redesign of business processes by making value creation, abuses and countermeasures explicit."
Recommended Reading Lists
- Cybernetics on Amazon.com
- A list of books available from Amazon is available in the Squidoo Lens: Cybernetics
- A Curriculum for Cybernetics and Systems Theory
- This list, by Alan B. Scrivener consists of suggested books, periodicals, television shows and computer programs for a classroom curriculum or individual study in cybernetics and systems theory.
- Int. Inst. General Systems Studies recommendations
- The International Institute for General Systems Studies, Inc., recommended list of publications to anyone interested in systems and cybernetics.
Managerial Cybernetics books on Amazon
Organizational Transformation and Learning: A Cybernetic Approach to Management
Amazon Price: $99.11 (as of 12/02/2008) 
The Heart of Enterprise (Classic Beer Series)
Amazon Price: $109.21 (as of 12/02/2008)
Decision and Control: The Meaning of Operational Research and Management Cybernetics (Classic Beer Series)
Amazon Price: $115.00 (as of 12/02/2008)
Platform for Change
Amazon Price: $115.00 (as of 12/02/2008)
How Many Grapes Went into the Wine: Stafford Beer on the Art and Science of Holistic Management
Amazon Price: $245.00 (as of 12/02/2008)
Cybernetics and management (Management science series)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2008)
Brain of the Firm (Classic Beer Series)
Amazon Price: $100.26 (as of 12/02/2008)
Diagnosing the System for Organizations
Amazon Price: $104.91 (as of 12/02/2008)
Unchaining the Chain of Command (Crisp Management Library)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/02/2008)
Cybernetic Book Reviews
- Ten Pints of Beer
- Stafford Beer
This paper describes the Rationale of his Cybernetic Books:
Cybernetics and Management
Decision and Control
Brain of the Firm
Management Science
Designing Freedom
Platform for Change
The Heart of Enterprise
Diagnosing the System for Organizations
Beyond Dispute
How Many Grapes Went into the Wine
Cybernetic Texts on Amazon
technical and mathematical treatments
General Bools on Cybernetics on Amazon
The Human Use Of Human Beings: Cybernetics And Society (Da Capo Paperback)
Amazon Price: $11.26 (as of 12/02/2008)
God and Golem, Inc.: A Comment on Certain Points where Cybernetics Impinges on Religion
Amazon Price: $17.05 (as of 12/02/2008)
