This book presents real-world problems and pioneering research that reflect novel approaches to cybernetics, algorithms and software engineering in the context of intelligent systems. It gathers the peer-reviewed proceedings of the 2nd Computational Methods in Systems and Software 2018 (CoMeSySo 2018), a conference that broke down traditional barriers by being held online. The goal of the event was to provide an international forum for discussing the latest high-quality research results.

Gertrudis Van de Vijver· Seminar of Logic and Epistemology University of Ghent Before being classified under the fashionable denominators of complexity and chaos, self-organization and autonomy were intensely inquired into in the cybernetic tradition. Despite all rejections that cybernetics has gone through in the second half of this century, today its importance is more and more recognized. Its decisive influence for connectionist theories, autopoietic and constructivist theories, for different forms of applied or experimental epistemology, is being more and more understood and generally accepted. It is mainly due to the success of connectionist models that we observe today a revival of interest for cybernetics. The 1943 article by McCulloch and Pitts is evidently a founding article. Cybernetics has however a much broader interest than the one linked to technical-mathematical details relevant to the construction of networks. For instance, the evolution from first to second order cybernetics, the ways of approaching biological and cognitive phenomena in the latter and the limits that were formulated there, are particularly meaningful to understand current developments and divergences in connectionism. A nuanced picture of cybernetic's history and its present state is therefore clearly epistemologically essential.

Organization Structure: Cybernetic Systems Foundation utilizes a cybernetic systems framework for the study of organizations using GST (General Systems Theory) and presents a comprehensive formal view of organizations assessing regulation, coordination and adaptation managements. The use of GST in this book is in sharp contrast to previous attempts. It addresses structural problems totally based on qualitative, non-numerical mathematics. The book lays a framework for initial efforts to investigate the potential of using formal GST to address organizational dilemmas. The text has been tested in several graduate courses. It can serve as an excellent textbook or reference for graduate level research in this field, as well as a reference for researchers in related fields.

The volume Software Engineering Perspectives and Application in Intelligent Systems presents new approaches and methods to real-world problems, and in particular, exploratory research that describes novel approaches in the field of Software Engineering. Particular emphasis is laid on modern trends in selected fields of interest. New algorithms or methods in a variety of fields are also presented. The 5th Computer Science On-line Conference (CSOC 2016) is intended to provide an international forum for discussions on the latest research results in all areas related to Computer Science. The addressed topics are the theoretical aspects and applications of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligences, Cybernetics, Automation Control Theory and Software Engineering.

The subject “Systems sciences and cybernetics” is the outcome of the convergence of a number of trends in a larger current of thought devoted to the growing complexity of (primarily social) objects and arising in response to the need for globalized treatment of such objects. This has been magnified by the proliferation and publication of all manner of quantitative scientific data on such objects, advances in the theories on their inter-relations, the enormous computational capacity provided by IT hardware and software and the critical revisiting of subject-object interaction, not to mention the urgent need to control the efficiency of complex systems, where “efficiency” is understood to mean the ability to find a solution to many social problems, including those posed on a planetary scale. The result has been the forging of a new, academically consolidated scientific trend going by the name of Systems Theory and Cybernetics, with a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary focus and therefore apt for understanding realities still regarded to be inescapably chaotic. This subject entry is subdivided into four sections. The first, an introduction to systemic theories, addresses the historic development of the most commonly used systemic approaches, from new concepts such as the so-called “geometry of thinking” or the systemic treatment of “non-systemic identities” to the taxonomic, entropic, axiological and ethical problems deriving from a general “systemic-cybernetic” conceit. Hence, the focus in this section is on the historic and philosophical aspects of the subject. Moreover, it may be asserted today that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, problems, in particular problems deriving from human interaction but in general any problem regardless of its nature, must be posed from a systemic perspective, for otherwise the obstacles to their solution are insurmountable. Reaching such a perspective requires taking at least the following well-known steps: a) statement of the problem from the determinant variables or phenomena; b) adoption of theoretical models showing the interrelationships among such variables; c) use of the maximum amount of – wherever possible quantitative – information available on each; d) placement of the set of variables in an environment that inevitably pre-determines the problem. That epistemology would explain the substantial development of the systemic-cybernetic approach in recent decades. The articles in the second section deal in particular with the different methodological approaches developed when confronting real problems, from issues that affect humanity as a whole to minor but specific questions arising in human organizations. Certain sub-themes are discussed by the various authors – always from a didactic vantage –, including: problem discovery and diagnosis and development of the respective critical theory; the design of ad hoc strategies and methodologies; the implementation of both qualitative (soft system methodologies) and formal and quantitative (such as the “General System Problem Solver” or the “axiological-operational” perspective) approaches; cross-disciplinary integration; and suitable methods for broaching psychological, cultural and socio-political dynamisms. The third section is devoted to cybernetics in the present dual meaning of the term: on the one hand, control of the effectiveness of communication and actions, and on the other, the processes of self-production of knowledge through reflection and the relationship between the observing subject and the observed object when the latter is also observer and the former observed. Known as “second order cybernetics”, this provides an avenue for rethinking the validity of knowledge, such as for instance when viewed through what is known as “bipolar feedback”: processes through which interactions create novelty, complexity and diversity. Finally, the fourth section centres around artificial and computational intelligence, addressing sub-themes such as “neural networks”, the “simulated annealing” that ranges from statistical thermodynamics to combinatory problem-solving, such as in the explanation of the role of adaptive systems, or when discussing the relationship between biological and computational intelligence.

Agricultural systems are uniquely complex systems, given that agricultural systems are parts of natural and ecological systems. Those aspects bring in a substantial degree of uncertainty in system operation. Also, impact factors, such as weather factors, are critical in agricultural systems but these factors are uncontrollable in system management. Modern agriculture has been evolving through precision agriculture beginning in the late 1980s and biotechnological innovations in the early 2000s. Precision agriculture implements site-specific crop production management by integrating agricultural mechanization and information technology in geographic information system (GIS), global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and remote sensing. Now, precision agriculture is set to evolve into smart agriculture with advanced systematization, informatization, intelligence and automation. From precision agriculture to smart agriculture, there is a substantial amount of specific control and communication problems that have been investigated and will continue to be studied. In this book, the core ideas and methods from control problems in agricultural production systems are extracted, and a system view of agricultural production is formulated for the analysis and design of management strategies to control and optimize agricultural production systems while exploiting the intrinsic feedback information-exchanging mechanisms. On this basis, the theoretical framework of agricultural cybernetics is established to predict and control the behavior of agricultural production systems through control theory.

Knowledge-Based Intelligent System Advancements: Systemic and Cybernetic Approaches presents selected new AI–based ideas and methods for analysis and decision making in intelligent information systems derived using systemic and cybernetic approaches. This book is useful for researchers, practitioners and students interested intelligent information retrieval and processing, machine learning and adaptation, knowledge discovery, applications of fuzzy based methods and neural networks.

Cybernetics and Systems Theory in Management: Tools, Views, and Advancements provides new models and insights into how to develop, test, and apply more effective decision-making and ethical practices in an organizational setting.

The primary purpose of this handbook is to clearly describe the current state of theories of systems sciences and to support their use and practice. There are many ways in which systems sciences can be described. This handbook takes a multifaceted view of systems sciences and describes them in terms of a relatively large number of dimensions, from natural and engineering science to social science and systems management perspectives. It is not the authors’ intent, however, to produce a catalog of systems science concepts, methodologies, tools, or products. Instead, the focus is on the structural network of a variety of topics. Special emphasis is given to a cyclic–interrelated view; for example, when a theory of systems sciences is described, there is also discussion of how and why the theory is relevant to modeling or practice in reality. Such an interrelationship between theory and practice is also illustrated when an applied research field in systems sciences is explained. The chapters in the handbook present definitive discussions of systems sciences from a wide array of perspectives. The needs of practitioners in industry and government as well as students aspiring to careers in systems sciences provide the motivation for the majority of the chapters. The handbook begins with a comprehensive introduction to the coverage that follows. It provides not only an introduction to systems sciences but also a brief overview and integration of the succeeding chapters in terms of a knowledge map. The introduction is intended to be used as a field guide that indicates why, when, and how to use the materials or topics contained in the handbook.

In light of the enormous interest in building intelligent systems, this volume blends theory, applications, and methodology of cybernetics taking it out of the realm of the abstract and explaining how cybernetics can contribute to an improved understanding of intelligence. Among the topics of the 17