Symposium: Theories and Metaphors of Cyberspace

April 9 -12, 1996
at the University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

A symposium organized by the Principia Cybernetica Project (PCP) will be held at EMCSR'96. Chairs are Francis Heylighen and Stuart Umpleby. The objective is to better understand the implications of the present explosive growth in global computer networks, like the Internet or the World-Wide Web. We wish to develop models of how these networks will further develop and how they will affect individuals and society at all levels.

Soon, the whole of human knowledge will be directly available to every person with access to a networked computer. Moreover, communication between individuals will become much easier, faster and more transparent, transcending the boundaries of space and time. The changes will not only be quantitative, but qualitative: "smart" computer systems will not only provide more information more quickly, but allow novel applications (virtual reality, intelligent agents, distributed processing, automated indexing...) that no one ever would have dreamt of. These changes will affect and deeply transform all aspects of society: education (distance learning, electronic universities), work (telework, groupware), commerce (electronic cash), the media, government (electronic democracy), health, science (electronic publication) and technology. It seems as though society's collective intelligence will increase manifold, perhaps producing an evolutionary transition to a higher level of intelligence.

As these developments are so fast, and so difficult to predict, precise models are usually not possible. In that case, comprehension may be helped by using analogies. Examples of such metaphors for global network functions are the "Information Superhighway", which emphasizes the speedy channels along which information moves, the network as a "Super-brain", which emphasizes the collective intelligence of users and computers connected by the global network, Jacques Vallée's notion of an "information singularity", which notes that networked information becomes instantaneously available everywhere (see also Vernor Vinge's concept of singularity), and "Cyberspace" itself, which visualizes networked information as an immense space through which one can "surf".

Though metaphors can be very useful, they generally only express one or a few dimensions of a multidimensional phenomenon. Therefore, we should move to more detailed and comprehensive models, which can be tested by observation, implementation or simulation. Cybernetics, as a theory of communication, information and control, seems most directly applicable to such model-building, but valuable insights may come from the most diverse domains: sociology, futurology, AI, complex systems, man-machine interaction, cognitive psychology, etc. Our emphasis is on concepts, principles, and observations, rather than on technical protocols or specific implementations (although existing systems may provide a concrete illustration from which more general implications can be derived).

About the Conference

The European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research are possibly the most important and best organized large congresses in their domain. Though they are called "European" by tradition, they really bring together researchers from all continents (albeit with a relative large proportion of people from Central and Eastern Europe). Among the distinctive features are the high quality, well-distributed Proceedings, which are available at the start of the Conference. Therefore, papers should be submitted quite a while before the start of the conference. Check the

EMCSR'96 announcement for more details, and a registration form for the conference.

Submitted papers

Submitted draft papers have been reviewed anonymously by three referees. In cases where they disagreed, the decision has been made by the conference chairman, R. Trappl.

Final Program

The Symposium will take place on Tuesday, April 9, and Wednesday, April 10, 1996, in room 46 of the Main Building of the University of Vienna, Dr. K. Lueger Ring, Vienna. Symposium participants are invited to an informal lunch in Cafe Einstein (Rathausplatz 4, at the back of the Conference building), on Tuesday at 12.15, in order to get acquainted (the participants will meet at the conference reception desk after the opening session of the conference, so that they can go in group to the Cafe).

The complete conference program can be found here. The following papers will be presented at this Symposium (links go to the abstracts):

14.00 - G.J. Marshall: Language and Metaphors of Cyberspace
14.30 - Stuart Umpleby: Several Models of Communication and Control as Guides to Understanding Cyberspace
15.00 - Kevin Howley: Electronic Agrarianism: orThomas Jefferson Gets a Modem
15.30 - Coffee Break
16.00 - Mia J. Lipner: CYBERSTADT: E.C.H.O. and the Growth of Virtual Communities
16.30 - Julie M. Albright: Of Mind, Body and Machine: Cyborg Cultural Politics in the Age of Hypertext (full paper)
17.00 - Alberto Cecchi: The Distorted Outside/Inside Antinomy
17.30 - Matthew Taylor: Fiction as Artificial Life: Exploring the Ideosphere

11.00 - Michael Schreiber: Fractal Maps of Cyber-Markets
11.30 - Cliff Joslyn: Semantic Webs: A Cyberspatial Representational Form for Cybernetics (full paper in PostScript)
12.00 - Johan Bollen & Francis Heylighen: Algorithms for the Self-Organisation of Distributed, Multi-User Networks. Possible application to the future World Wide Web (full paper)
12.30 - Francis Heylighen & Johan Bollen: The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: from metaphor to model (full paper)

14.00 - Gottfried Mayer-Kress: Global Brains and Communication in aComplex Adaptive World
14.30 - Dieter Schmalstieg and Michael Gervautz: Implementing Gibsonian Virtual Environments
15.00 - Paulo Camargo Silva: A Logic for Networked Virtual Worlds
15.30 - Coffee Break
16.00 - Francis Heylighen, Stuart Umpleby and others: Panel Discussion: Past and Future of the Net

Not presented

Though the following submitted proposals will not be presented at the Symposium because of various reasons, these abstracts are certainly of interest to anybody interested in the symposium subject.

Laurence J. Victor: Is Cyberspace for Individuals or for Teams & Communities?
Alexander Chislenko: Networking in the Mind Age
Joseph R. Shuster: Mind and the Net as an Intersection of Information Space
Eric Schwarz: The "Information Highways" as a Step in the Self-Organization of a Planetary Organism
Stephen Webb: Cyberspace, Virtual Reality and The End of History
Jerrold Maddox: The Storyteller's Tool-box
Walter Logeman: Necessity and Metaphor
Roy Ascott: Cyberception and the Paranatural Mind: an artist's perspective
Michael Cranford: The Social Trajectory of Virtual Reality: Substantive Ethics in a World Without Constraints
Carolyn Dowling: From text to teapots - constituting the subject in computer-based environments
Stephen Bates: The End of Geography
Charles Ostman: The Internet as an Organism
Charles Cameron: WaterBird: A Metaphor for the Net

global networking

as part of the

EMCSR'96

April 9 -12, 1996

at the University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria