1. The Lessons of Y2K

A plenary forum that will draw upon the results of an intensive before-and-after research program and a wealth of direct experience and observation from the perspective of the systems sciences.

Facilitator: Professor Stuart Umpleby
Research Program in Social and Organizational Learning
George Washington University

2. Healthy Communities in a Healthy World

A special symposium focussed on raising the vision of “healthy communities” (“healthy cities”) - a holistic approach to community health that is now used in over 7,000 cities worldwide - to the next level. We must develop a broader vision of healthy communities in an interdependent world community.

Facilitator: Dr. Len Duhl, M.D.
Professor of Public Health and Urban Policy
University of California

3. The Art and Science of Forecasting in the Age of Global Warming

A systems view of an ancient art with a decidedly mixed record. What have we learned and how can it be applied to the problems we face in the new millennium?

Facilitator: Professor (Emeritus) Hal Linstone
Portland State University Systems
Science Program and Editor of
Technological Forecasting and Social Change

4. Re-thinking Human Rights and Global Responsibilities in the New Millennium

Toward a balanced vision of human values that is grounded in the reality of increasingly interdependent societies in an interdependent global community - a special symposium.

Facilitator: Professor Robert Artigiani
Professor and Chairman
History Department,
U.S. Naval Academy

5.Capitalism in the 21st Century: The Challenge of Suatainability.

How the business sector is responding to rapid changes

Facilitator: Professor Enrique Herrscher
Dean Graduate Business School
IDEA (Management Development Institute of Argentina)

6. “’Thermoeconomics’: Beyond the Second Law”

The purpose of this specially arranged symposium will be to explore the proposition that the role of energy in biological (and human) evolution is best defined and understood not in terms of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and entropy but in terms of economic criteria - the relative costs and benefits (or profitability) of the activities associated with capturing and utilizing available energy to build biomass and do work. A significant trend can be discerned over the course of evolutionary history in relation to an increasing ability of living systems to acquire and utilize energy. The central role of thermoeconomics in human evolution will also be considered.

7. What is Life?

Symposium panel on the deepest questions in the life sciences, echoing the title of a legendary book by Nobel physicist Ervin Schrödinger in 1945 and a more recent volume on the subject by biologist Lynn Margulis and science writer Dorion Sagan.

8. Resources and the Environment in the New Millennium

9. A Self-Organizing Open Forum

On Saturday morning, after the last keynote and plenary speech, the last symposium, the last paper panel and the final public lecture, there will be a full opportunity to discuss everything that was said, or not said, at the conference, and to provide inputs into the World Congress/ISSS Proceedings. We would like to begin the discussion now, well before the event, and we hope that it will continue after Saturday, July 22nd.

Several workshops and “mini-courses” are being offered as special additions to the conference program. Some of these will not be included in your registration fee. You must pay for these separately, where required. Workshop/mini-course registrations and fee payments are included on the enclosed registration form. For further information, contact the facilitators listed below.

1. A Comprehensive Introduction to the Systems Sciences

(An overview of its knowledge base, institutions, publications, and education)

This workshop will try to deliver practical information for workers new to systems science or established workers who want a wider view of the nascent field. It will provide a taxonomy of the systems sciences that emphasizes the significance of each classification on research, applications, communication, and integration practices in the field. It will organize an update to workbooks listing the publications, educational programs, researchers, and institutions active in the field and a post mortem to identify lessons learned from those no longer active. It will present and diagnose dozens of obstacles inhibiting development of the field. It will introduce a new XML-based Internet website and database dedicated to assisting research and applications in the systems science community. It will include surveys that indicate how the international literature might provide information of direct use to the field. It will provide a taxonomy of the important “answerable” questions systems science might consider and describe how systems research is and is not “science”. This is a “living” workshop and will be available only to those who have participated via the Internet at some time during the year of its preparation.

2. The ‘Stealth’ Systems Science Curriculum

(How to get systems science education into the curricula of your college)

This workshop is designed for individuals seriously interested in adapting and adopting the Integrated Science General Education Program for their institution. It will present alternative strategies and tactics for presenting ISGE to your faculty and administration. It will present numerous arguments and significant assessment data that proves the efficacy of using systems processes to teach the nearly universal science requirement for general education. It will present five dissemination workbooks that describe in practical detail what it takes to initiate a successful ISGE program on your campus. This is a “living” workshop and will be available only to those who have participated via the Internet at some time during the year of its preparation.

3. The Natural Sciences and Doing Systems Research

(How to tap the productive interface between the natural and systems sciences)

This workshop will show how the voluminous reductionist research of astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, mathematics, and computer science can be a rich source of information for the systems sciences. This workshop will demonstrate how 120 case studies of systems processes in these seven sciences can significantly increase our understanding and application of systems processes. It will present a multi-institutional and multi-year plan for serious and rigorous cooperative-collaborative research that would significantly advance our knowledge of the systems sciences. It will introduce the two new fields of “systems allometry” and “artificial systems research” as case studies that show how collaborative research could develop these new fields into much needed exemplars of science-based systems research. It will include information on national funding sources for this effort. This is a “living” workshop and will be available only to those who have participated via the Internet at some time during the year of its preparation.

This workshop will discuss the verification of solutions to perceived complex problems as presented in the presented papers of the Systems Modeling SIG and the Systems Psychology and Psychiatry SIG. Many types of simplification will be discussed as one way of understanding perceived complexity. It should be of interest even if you have not attended the panel presentations although familiarity with the papers would help.