Savely Savva
Monterey Instituite for the Study of Altenative Healing Arts (MISAHA)

The contemporary physical description of the universe reflects the inanimate world only. Broadening this description by including life will not affect the application of well-established physical laws but may find new forces of the universe governing living organizations. This may require adoption of some new assumptions and methodological principles, such as a broader principle of uncertainty, and recognition of the fact that humans' ability to manifest biofield communication is distributed very unevenly in the population.
Based on available body of scientific literature it is suggested that at this time, before the theoretical basis of the biofield is developed, it is important to conduct a broad experimental study of highly psi-gifted individuals in order to accumulate scientific knowledge of humans' ability to interact with matter, i.e., known physical fields and living organisms by intent.
One can expect that current studies of organisms' genomes and attempts to utilize stem cells in medicine will call for the recognition of the biofield and its operative control function in organisms. However, developing a from-the-top-down view on the organism by the suggested approach will shorten this process and it deserves appropriate investment of social resources.

Key words: Ultimate biophysics, biofield, psi phenomena, general control system of the organism.

Edith R. Silva-Mendoza,
Eduardo Oliva-Lopez and
Susana Jáuregui-Honorato
IPN, Mexico.

The objective of this work is to show that there is a systemic way for coping with stress, that has proved to be effective in a wide variety of situations.

A number of stress relieving techniques have been developed and applied to tackle this problem, ranging from psychiatric based treatments up to alternative medicine; however, such approaches are not often available to all stress sufferers and lack effectiveness, since they all seek cure through physiopsychological modifications and lack feedback control actions (¿?).

Psychosocial stress has become a major problem in most communities, its impact can be appreciated in the rise of related diseases (peptic ulcers, hypertension, some types of cancer), labor conflicts, familiar instability, alcoholism, drug addiction and crime rate. This is why urgent actions are badly needed to tackle this widespread problem on all fronts.

The fundamentals of our systemic approach to stress relief are that the patient is an active element of the cure cycle. The therapist acts as a guide and evaluator, but the patient takes full responsibility for the treatment. The patient seeks to understand and control all stressors while entering in a harmonious relationship with the environment.

We should all be aware that there are several levels of stress having different impacts on different people, consequently, effective stress treatment should be tailored to the patient needs and environment. In all groups studied, ignorance and uncertainty have been found to be major sources of stress, leading to personal insecurity, fear and failure, which in turn increases stress. The very treatment of stress should be introduced by an adequate instruction and education of the patients group, as described in the body of this paper.

Keywords: stress, treatment, coping, systemic.

James R. Simms

The foundation for developing principles of living systems science for groups is provided in Principles of Quantitative Living Systems Science (Simms, 1999). This book treats individual organisms from cells to homo sapiens. Animal species that exhibit group behaviors are a subset of the total number of animal species. Although the group behaviors of the human species are most important to most people, principles of living systems science for groups must apply to all animal species that exhibit group behaviors..

Groups are categorized in terms of the number of group members that exhibit specific group behaviors. The first category is a female and male because sexual reproduction is a ubiquitous group behavior. The next category is a female and offspring that exhibit the prevalent nurturing and protection behaviors. These categories are followed by (1) a female, male and offspring, (2) the nuclear family, (3) the extended family, and (4) the tribe consisting of individuals with many similar characteristics.

The fundamental principles of groups are: (1) group behaviors are observable and measurable by way of the work (energy) used in these behaviors, (2) groups have a unique behavioral characteristic which is a capacity to direct energy, (3) a group's capacity to direct energy is a function of its structure and organization, (4) a group's capacity to direct energy can be quantified (measured or calculated), (5) group behavior is a function of the energy available to the group, (6) a group's behavior is a function of group behavioral information, (7) group behavioral information is the ability to cause group work and can be measured by the work it causes, and (8) a group's behavior is a direct function of the group's capacity to direct energy, to the energy available to the group, and to group behavioral information.

[01- 11]

Carl Slawski

Sociology Department, California State University, Long Beach

Mailing address: 11622 Rabaul Dr.

Cypress, CA 90630 --- U.S.A.

E-mail: cslawski@juno.com.

Healing is the essence of medical arts and one possible outcome of spiritual endeavor, producing fruits in terms of healthier bodies and environments. Thoughtful scientific research and religious practice help us humans to achieve direction in our lives, thus giving deeper meaning to all our actions. Action toward the goals of other persons, toward improving our common living environment (deep ecology a la Naess et al), and for the betterment of humanity, helps us to achieve deeper meaning for self and other, and of course is another word for service (which also is one of the core values of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, c. 1540). When all of these viewpoints, namely, meaningful action, spiritual direction, and service to others, come together in a synergistic wheel integrating elements of divergent and convergent variety, collective and personal healing of bodies and souls and of joint living space is more likely to result, for individual selves, for society, and for the human species. Several social scientists have in recent years demonstrated that those who more explicitly practice a spiritual discipline are more likely to be happy and healthy. Taking the results of such research and the accumulated wisdom of most major world religions, these synthetic spiritual and scientific practitioners may also be or become wiser than those not plugged into the wheel of life in such a meaningful way.

This paper will build upon or perhaps simplify the author's prior papers and graphic models
presented at meetings, first on love and separately on stress (at the American Sociological Association, 1972 and 1991), on the spiritual retreat (at Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1969), but mostly at the ISSS meetings (appearing in the Proceedings) on the meaning of life
(1999), acts of insight (1985), social E-CO realization and syntropic wisdom 1998), love (1991, 1993, 1999, etc.), relationship logo-therapy (1996, working from ideas of V. Frankl), religion as therapy (1992), religion and science (1994), and promoting synergy (2000, in the face of life-threatening events, notions complementing the thoughts of P. Corning, 1999 et al), previously
outlined in the five steps of the acronym around "Maps and Stars" (2000). The five elements of "MApSyNStars" are, in imperative voice: Meditate, Appraise, Synergize, Negotiate, and Seek your Stars (as also described in a page of the author's web site: www.mapsandstars.homestead.com
<http://www.mapsandstars.homestead.com/> ). This exposition will be done in a way that will hopefully promote creative as well as fruitful scientific thinking about the mission of medical and humane arts, as well as that of the physical, social and management sciences. Parallels will be
offered toward the system sciences' goal of unification of the objective knowledge through analogy and cross-linking of hypotheses at many disciplinary levels, and many varieties of human understanding. To learn about getting and staying well, first as physical beings, case examples will be given from instances of Remarkable Recovery (Hirschberg and Barasch, 1995) or apparently miraculous healings.

Keywords: Healing, Synergy, Meaning, Service, Spirituality, Immunology. [01- 90]

Charles Smith, Ph.D.

Department of Management, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11550 USA
phone: (516) 463-5731, fax: (516) 463-4834, Email: muinuddin@msn.com

Michael Elmes, Ph.D.

Department of Management, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609, USA
phone: (508) 831-5182, fax: (508) 831-5720, Email: mbelmes@wpi.edu

This paper explores insights from the psychology of C.G. Jung as it relates to leadership and the management of change in organizational systems. It draws especially upon Jung's archetypal interpretation of the biblical story of Job, and its relevance to modern day study of organizational life. It suggests that the transformations of consciousness represented within the story of Job are highly relevant to the ways that organizations and their leaders face chaotic, turbulent and/or unpredictable circumstances.

Keywords: Turbulence, chaos, uncertainty, transformation.

[01- 108]

Sophie Souroujon, B.A., and Vadim I. Kvitash, M.D., Ph.D.
Personal Health Response, Inc.
2299 Post Street Medical Building, Suite 307,
San Francisco, California 94115

Distinct individuality of each living organism clearly implies inseparability, indivisibility and, at the same time, duality of complex mechanisms which control, regulate, and coordinate their inner processes, functions and observable behavior. In an attempt to build a theory of duality, we model living organisms on four hierarchial levels.
The first level is a Systems Control (SC) which governs the second level of mutually independent mechanisms of Regulation (R) and Coordination (C) meaning that one of them could be normal and at the same time another could be abnormal. The third level are concrete functions and processes (F). The fourth level is the totality of Systems Behavior (B).
SC-mechanisms are responsible for proper Regulation and Coordination. R-mechanisms regulate only the levels of functioning. However, C-mechanisms has a different purpose; they are responsible for multiple balances/imbalances among numerous processes and systems functions and have nothing to do with the level of their functioning.
Together, R-C mechanisms represent regulation-coordination duality. Regulation and Coordination possess another type of duality: normal-abnormal duality: nR-aR, nC-aC. The double duality of regulation-coordination and normal-abnormal can be viewed as a unifying principle and has a significant role in achieving syntegrity and maintaining unity and wholeness of living organisms.
New reality of relational double duality is defined and expressed as: (nRnC) - normal regulation and normal coordination or living systems well-functioning; (aRnC) - abnormal regulation and normal coordination or living systems adaptation; (nRaC) - normal regulation and abnormal coordination or hidden disorders in living systems functions; (aRaC) - abnormal regulation and abnormal coordination or overt disorders in living systems functioning.
Presented logical constructs of hierarchial taxonomy, double duality, adaptation and hidden disorders in living systems provide a useful background for heuristic, analytic and constructive purposes in building a viable Theory of Duality..

Keywords: Duality, Hierarchial Taxonomy, Control, Regulation, Coordination

MODELLING AND EFFECT OF ANTICIPATION AND PERSEVERANCE IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Rudolf Starkermann
Juchstrasse 22, CH-5436 Wuerenlos,
Switzerland, rstarkermann@access.ch

Darwin's basic postulates for surviving are willpower and speed. These two characteristics will be demonstrated firstly for a single person in the autonomous state with regard to his self-realization. Self-realization is the ultimate goal of a living being. Secondly, and more important, it will be demonstrated how the individual characteristics evolve in a partnership of two persons. It is a fact that a person does not lose his individual characteristics when he enters a relationship (The leopard cannot change his spots). But his characteristics dissolve into the partnership. The partnership shows its own feature, depending on the individual partners´ characteristics and the specific information exchanged between the two constituents. Such exchange happens unconsciously and consciously. The partners´ self-realization becomes dependent on the partnership´s character as a whole.

Keywords: partnership, willpower, speed, anticipation, perseverance.

Takala, M..
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management
Helsinki University of Technology, P.O. Box 9500, FIN-02015 HUT, Finland, e-mail: Minna.Takala@hut.fi

Hawk, D
School of Management, New Jersey Institute of Technology
University Heights, Newark, New Jersey, 07040, USA
hawk@megahertz.njit.com

Corporations are playing a major role in the current societal change. They are an integral part of societies in which they operate and they directly and indirectly are part of the lives and wellbeing of multiple individuals. Social responsibility is a popular term in current business management, but how to create environment that enhances and values a sense of responsibility and appreciation both in societal and individual levels?

Economic structures are changing. Intensive co-operation, collaboration and co-opetition are creating global network constellations that transform themselves continuously. These global, networked, extended enterprises expand and shrink, form alliances and merge, spin-off, sell or close their units and outsource. These networks have desires and abilities to effect development of societies globally. When expanding they seek after favorable environments for their operations: emergent markets, qualified employees and efficient and safe infrastructures. Importance of the societal role of corporations seems to be more valued. Corporate leaders are making strong statements related to societal development, for example educational policies and technological infrastructures. Good corporate citizenship, human and ethical conduct, closer connections to society, concern of environment and nature are emphasized. Not only in the original home country, but also in other locations. Bad news travels fast and nowadays even faster. Some of these concerns unfortunately seem to be only mainly cosmetic and they can be found rather in annual reports or in marketing materials than in reality.

At the same time the need for customer, supplier and employee appreciation is increasing. There has always been a lack of highly qualified people, but now they seem to be even more valuable. Investment on corporate education and training programs is increasing. Creation of better working conditions for own employees, but also for the personnel of suppliers and customers requires participation and empowerment. Learning, working and service environments are becoming integrated by ICT (information and communication technology) solutions, not only within one enterprise, but within the network of customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Traditional power structures are endangered by distributed decision making process, participation and empowerment of those, who really can do.

This paper discusses the changing role of corporations in the societal and individual levels. The challenge is to create appreciative environments, that integrate social, psychological, physical and virtual (ICT) environments to facilitate negotiation, sharing of knowledge and mutual learning. Examples from corporate world will be provided.

Keywords: appreciative systems, change and development, learning, working and service environments
[01-063]

Xijin Tang
Institute of Systems Science,
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, 100080 P.R.CHINA

Jifa Gu Yoshiteru Nakamori
School of Knowledge Science,
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Ishikawa, 923-1292, JAPAN

In this paper, a project of enterprise management software development is analyzed. For most enterprises in China, the management levels are still very low. So are the practices of computerized support for managerial work. Comprehensive reforms have to be made so as to change poor situation and meet global challenges. Continual heavy investments have been going to computerized support management among most state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In enterprises management software market, foreign brand products have a big share. Many domestic computer companies are also involved due to so huge a market where oriental culture factors play important roles. This paper analyzes one private company's two-year project on enterprise management software development by applying an oriental Wu-li Shi-li Ren-li (WSR) system approach. Some big issues in the project are presented, conflicts between different viewpoints about computerized support for enterprise management, especially along with the globalization trend and tremendous development of the Internet, dilemma in the pursuit of western management style and unavoidable involvement of oriental messy human relationship, organizational impacts to the project implementation, and inappropriate framework of the project teams which brought wastes in human resources. After a brief introduction of the approach, WSR analysis to those issues is presented. Till now, a whole practical software package has not finished yet. WSR approach to such a case study forwards further thinking of most problems in the information technology (IT) industry in China.
Key words: Wu-li Shi-li Ren-li system approach, computerized support for enterprise management, human resources management
[01-093]

Lane Tracy
Copeland Hall, Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701

Although living systems theory (LST) is a formidable academic achievement, it has also proven to have pragmatic value. LST has been employed in a variety of ways by researchers and practitioners all over the world. To aid others in understanding the value of LST this paper codifies and highlights the many uses to which the theory has been put and suggests some additional uses.

Keywords: living systems theory, cross-level, model, icons, measurement

Andrea G. Tracy*
Lane Tracy
George Mason University
Ohio University

A system is more than the sum of its parts. Some people may interpret this statement as meaning that a system is better than the sum of its parts. Yet that value judgment clearly cannot be sustained. As we look at the world around us we can readily identify social systems that are dysfunctional. Such systems may be seen as ineffective, inefficient, or harmful. An ineffective social system is one that routinely fails to attain its goals, even though it may be composed of talented and dedicated individuals. The system wastes the resources that are poured into it. When the social value of a system's outputs is less than the cost of its inputs, we may judge the system to be inefficient. And when the system does more harm than good, we are inclined to say that it is harmful.

In deciding that a social system is dysfunctional we must take a viewpoint. We may be looking at the system as an individual, judging whether it meets our needs, wastes our resources, or harms us. Or we may take a more neutral viewpoint, such as the position of the designer of the system, the system's intended clients, or its suprasystem. In such a case we would be assessing whether the system meets its designed objectives, serves its clients effectively and efficiently, or meets the purposes and goals of the larger system of which it is a part.

From almost any viewpoint the current system of aid to refugees in Africa is dysfunctional. Those who are familiar with the plight of African refugees see the situation as becoming worse rather than better. Political instability, warfare, economic collapse, disease, drought, and famine continue to generate new waves of refugees. Aid is administered by a variety of organizations that often do not communicate with each other or coordinate their efforts and are under no central authority. Host countries are often in dire economic and/or political straits themselves. The forms of aid that are available are, at best, palliative and not aimed at correcting the situation. Corruption and loss of resources is rampant in the system. As a result most refugees live in wretched conditions but have no hope of returning home.

This paper will first discuss how judgments of functionality are made. Next will be a discussion of potential causes of dysfunction in social systems, including design failure, subversion, inadequacy of resources, and lack of an effective decider subsystem. We will then examine the "system" of aid to refugees in Africa as a case in point, describing the system in place and assessing its functionality from various viewpoints. The paper will conclude with some suggestions for designing a more functional system.

[01- 30]

Lane Tracy
Copeland Hall, Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701

Efficiency fosters the survival of living systems. Yet inefficient social systems abound in our world. How do inefficient social systems come to exist and why do they survive? The community of insurers, government agencies, insurees, and health care providers who are linked by the current system of health care insurance in the U. S. is examined in this paper as a case study of an inefficient social system. Soft systems methodology is employed to compare the current system with an ideal model, and recommendations are offered as to how to move toward that model.

Keywords: social system, efficiency, health care, insurance, model

Dr. Len Troncale
Director, Institute for Advanced Systems Studies
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California 91768
Phone: (909) 869-4040
E-mail: lrtroncale@csupomona.edu

This SIG was one of the first in the ISSS. Its topic was recognized as important by the earliest ISSS Founders as well as recognized by international intellectual leaders like the late Herbert A. Simon. We would expect Hierarchy Theory to be a field characterized by considerable progress. The purpose of this summary review is to measure the magnitude of the effort expended over the last three decades, and contrast that effort with different measures of progress achieved. Some of the measures of progress cited will be the number of papers and books produced, sessions sponsored, key discriminations identified and decided, amount of consensus achieved, agreement on the key research questions that need to be addressed, and evidence of some method of empirical testing, refinement, or selection among theories advanced by practitioners. In the course of the review, I will cite some milestones and their consequences. One purpose of the review will be to explore whether or not inter-penetration and true integration of results has occurred between participating disciplines, or whether results and insights have remained mostly disciplinary-based and isolated. I will analyze and critique an early Delphi-based attempt to get hierarchy theorists from multiple countries and multiple disciplines to achieve consensus on some basic hierarchy concepts and tenets. I will also explore several specific "linkage propositions" between hierarchical mechanisms and processes and several other widely recognized systems processes. The purpose of this exercise would be to illustrate the need for and power of a "system" of interconnected systems processes to development of the field. I will address the special relationship between duality theory and hierarchy theory, especially for formulating and testing an empirically-based theory of emergence. Finally, the group as a whole should decide how we can better organize to work and publish together throughout the year to increase the level of understanding and consensus in hierarchy theory.

Dr. Len Troncale
Director, Institute for Advanced Systems Studies
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California 91768
Phone: (909) 869-4040
E-mail: lrtroncale@csupomona.edu

Practical, productive work in the systems sciences is made more difficult because of our failure to answer key questions and provide important services in a timely and efficient manner. Which systems journals have the greatest circulation so your article can reach the widest audience? Which journals have specialty audiences that you want to reach? Who is working on systems topics important to you? Which institutions have systems education programs? What is the base of funding and specialty focus for existing systems research institutions? Which agencies are interested in supporting some form of systems research, and which of these are the most well-endowed? Where can you find the most complete listing of potential systems processes? What hypothesized interactions between systems processes are being studied, and by what methods? What are the most commonly encountered systems pathologies, and what are their symptoms for diagnosis? Why don't we have a dedicated systems bibliography service to help you find all articles on a systems topic from all sources? The purpose of this workshop is to provide a "mapping" of answers to these and other questions of utility to systems research and design workers. The workshop organizer will provide initial mappings of these areas, but will ask other workshop participants to help brainstorm a more complete listing from their experience. This portion of the workshop will require an interest in the systems field more than capabilities in computer science and programming. We will use a computer projection method that allows group work to be integrated as suggestions occur. The group product will be available for handout by the end of the conference.

However, the workshop will go beyond the "mappings" to explore design of a tool that will let a much wider audience share the "mappings" and evolve a much, more complete set of listings using the Internet. Discussions during three workshops at the 44th Annual ISSS Meeting in Toronto, Canada showed that there was widespread need for, and interest in a free Internet Tool that could serve as a comprehensive source for past, present, and future systems work. Think of this tool as a common ground that would make it much easier for many different kinds of widely dispersed systems investigators to work together on a wide range of systems tasks. The features of this tool would be designed to significantly augment and speed the work of users. It would be a tool that would serve as an evolving neural net or evolving knowledge base for systems science as a field of study. Because of the form and function imposed by the XML definitions, the interchange among participants using SYSML would result in increasing detail and consensus rather than the fragmentation typical of current computer conferencing.

After presenting and group expansion of an initial map of systems science, the workshop will describe the features and program language for building the needed tool. The significance of each feature to key tasks and milestones in systems design, testing, research, and education will be covered. Second, the workshop will give participants an opportunity to give feedback on the utility of planned features, make suggestions of additional features, and volunteer to work in collaborative teams to make the tool a reality. We will use this workshop to initiate an Open Systems Science Foundation to advance work on the tool and keep it part of the "open source" programming movement. We will also try to arrive at a practical schedule that will allow us to build and test a prototype of the tool for multiple reports on its progress at the next ISSS Conference.

The new tool would be something like a master website. Website design does not require extensive knowledge of computer programming. In fact, design tools are available for users with a modest knowledge of computing. XML is an internet language well-suited to building Internet domains in technical subject areas that are accessible and functional for non-technical users. It is a platform- independent tool that will run on any machine. For example, CML (chemical markup language) is a combination of XML and Java that provides a common framework for description of the knowledge base for chemistry. By establishing standards for expression, presentation, and modification of hierarchical clusterings of systems processes, systems linkages between processes, systems bibliographies, systems research programs, systems institutions, systems education programs, systems funding agencies, systems investigators, and their interconnections, SYSML would incrementally codify the systems science movement and enable its further evolution. SYSML-XML would also be an interesting way to organize, present, and allow directed transformation and evolution of the knowledge base presented in the Integrated Science General Education Program thereby enhancing existing systems education programs.

Most of the time of the workshop will not be dedicated to the esoterics of programming in XML. Probably the most time will be spent on the extending and structuring the above areas of systems work that should be included in the SYSML site. We will attempt to form a group consensus of the broadest "mapping" of the field of systems science that should be represented in SYSML. Given this focus and the above objectives, it should be clear that this workshop would be of most interest to systems practitioners, not computer scientists.

Dr. Len Troncale
Director, Institute for Advanced Systems Studies
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California 91768
Phone: (909) 869-4040
E-mail: lrtroncale@csupomona.edu

The similarities between the historical development of medical science and systems science are striking and a possible source of significant lessons for the systems movement, especially systems design. This paper will explore these similarities focusing on how medical science was effective in overcoming in the past some of the same obstacles that face systems science today. The presentation will specify a number of questions whose answers would constitute a new specialty called "systems pathology." These questions include the following. What are the key "vital signs" of normal and healthy system's function? What are the "symptoms" of systems malfunctions? Can we cluster the symptoms into meaningful systems diseases? Are both the vital signs and symptoms common to a wide range of natural and human systems, or are they distinct between the two? Can we identify a number of specific "systems pathologies" by their symptoms? Can we classify the systems pathologies into a meaningful "taxonomy of pathologies" that reveals an additional level of understanding of normal and abnormal systems function? Would it be possible to formulate a series of "diagnostic tests" that would reveal or expose various taxons of systems pathology? Would the information derived from these systems diagnoses lead to an improved "prognosis of systems behavior?" If a sufficiently detailed systems pathology could be developed, would it lead to recognition of the "generic" causes of systems dysfunction? For example, would we be able to identify a set of fundamental and repetitive "human causes of systems malfunction?" Are there methods in medicine we could emulate that enable effective treatment of malfunctions, without perfect knowledge of the cause of the malfunctions? Illustrations and examples of answers for each of these questions will be given and criticized. For example, the possible roles of uncoupled positive and negative feedback loops, unbalanced numbers of feedback types, non-adaptive delays in feedback, and inappropriate linkages between feedback sensors and systems processes will be shown to create distinctive systems pathologies. Similar examples could be developed for hierarchical clustering and other important systems processes. Finally, this treatment will suggest the important role that a heightened awareness of systems pathology could play in improving in systems design.
 

Dr. Len Troncale
Director, Institute for Advanced Systems Studies
California State Polytechnic University
Pomona, California 91768
Phone: (909) 869-4040
E-mail: lrtroncale@csupomona.edu

This plenary presentation will provide one biologist's interpretation of the life and contributions of von Bertalanffy to biology and the systems movement. The purpose of the presentation will be partly to mark with honor and gratitude the 100th anniversary of the birth of our Founder. But it will also take the opportunity to critically explore how lasting were his contributions, and whether or not his vision has been fulfilled or remains to be filled. This interpretation will focus on the dynamics between von Bertalanffy and other "Founders" of the ISSS (then SGSR) and the role he played in the early history and later development of the society. It will critically examine Dr. Bertalanffy's contributions to the biological sciences, his "home" discipline, and contrast these contributions with those of Boulding to Economics, Miller to Behavioral Science, Toynbee to history, Weiner to computer science, and Mead to Anthropology. Lessons will be derived from studying the relationships between the "home discipline" contributions of early and recent systems investigators and their contributions to the systems movement. Hopefully, these lessons will tell us something about how to best conduct systems research in the current milieu. I will contrast the depth, detail, and rigor of von Bertalanffy's general theory as expressed in his key publications with those of current general models of systems. I will relate his positions to recent developments and outcomes. I will note what I consider to be errors of interpretation of his work that have been widely spread and sometimes have resulted in criticisms of the field and of his contributions. I will also examine the general effects of the phenomenon of "guru's" and/or "founders" to subsequent developments in any field, with special attention to the field of systems research. Finally, I will try to assess the currency of his work relative to new systems developments. It is also nearly the 30th anniversary of his death. Did his predictions come to pass? Was his vision realized? If not, does it still have a chance of being realized given current trends? How is the ISSS doing on meeting his goals? Have we overcome obstacles that he faced, or are we still inhibited by the same obstacles? Did we diverge from his plan of research, and if we did, why and how did we diverge with what consequences? The primacy and centrality of Bertalanffy's work is clear to most of us, but the final impacts of his contribution and his vision are still happening.

ABSTRACTS ASILOMAR 2001 U through Z