Above: Photograph of the front page of the 10th Macy Meeting from 1953
Click here for direct link to panel session on the conference webpage.
Click here for Update on #NewMacyMeeting #1 with description of intention and participant names.
Click here for updated description of #NewMacyMeetings initiative.
We live in the unprecedented era of multiple global pandemics: COVID-19, rapacious technology, uncontrolled climate change, inequitable healthcare, systemic racism, unprincipled socio-economic structures, food and water insecurity… the list is far longer. Science, governance, and society have failed. If we’re going to make a dent we need sharper systemic tools, much broader inclusivity, and new generations engaged in conversations for action.
The original Macy Meetings were held from the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, convened to explore the new art and science of systems that have purpose: cybernetics. Participants were international scholars who brought cybernetic frameworks back to their disciplines and changed the global discourse across the hard and soft sciences.
You are invited to the launch of #NewMacyMeetings in September 2020. This will be a modest first session, one of a series of experiments before a more formal and large-scale effort in 2021. This first session is called Why Can’t Cybernetics Tame Pandemics? This will comprise 2 speakers giving short positions on that question, and a few rounds with respondents who will answer: Where did the speakers agree? What did they leave out?
While following the ground-breaking tradition of trans-disciplinary conversations established by the original Macy Meetings, our #NewMacyMeetings must also be trans-global (diverse and inclusive) as well as trans-generational (engaging all ages).
#NewMacyMeeting #1 will be held between 12pm and 1pm EDT via Zoom on Sunday September 13. The session is part of the 2-day 2020 Global Conversation Conference, a joint effort of the American Society for Cybernetics and the British Cybernetic Society.
Registration is required but a donation is completely optional. Please go to this ASC page for more information and the link to register. You will receive a Zoom video invitation thereafter.