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This volume contains all papers presented at the Eighth European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research. 169 draft papers were submitted for evaluation. In the process of careful refereeing, 33 papers were rejected and the remaining authors were invited to submit final papers. Out of these, 119 were accepted for presentation at the conference and publication in this volume. These papers were prepared by 173 scientists, authors and co-authors, from 22 European and non-European countries, with different cultural, social, and economic structures. Everybody tried hard to make this conference and its proceedings a true representation of state-of-the-art research worldwide: The members of the Programme Committee and the Chairmen of the Symposia were selected among the ~internationally leading scientists. Great care was taken not to make this conference a'European'or even'Austrian'one. We are happy and proud to hear that these'European Meetings'(the name is a purely traditional one) are recognized as the internationally leading conferences in cybernetics and systems research. Important scientists from allover the world carefully prepare their papers, containing their most recent research findings, and then enjoy the discussions with their co 11 eagues.

The'world'is becoming more and more intractable. We have learned to discern'systems'in it, we have developed a highly sophisticated math­ ematical apparatus to'model''them, large computer simulation programs handle thousands of equations with zillions of parameters. But how ade­ quate are these efforts? Part One of this volume is a discussion containing some proposals for eliminating the constraints we encounter when approaching complex systems with our models: Is it possible, at all, to design a political or econom­ ic system without considering killing, torture, and oppression? Can we adequately model the present state of affairs while ignoring their often symbolic and paradoxical nature? Is it possible to explain teleological concepts such as'means'and'ends'in terms of basically 17th century Newtonian mechanics? Can we really make appropriate use of the vast a­ mount of systems concepts without exploring their relations, without de­ veloping a'system of systems concepts'? And why do more than 95% of all system modelling efforts end in just a heap of printed paper, and nothing else? Leading scientists from different disciplines, who have different viewpoints and use very different styles in presenting their message were invited to present their approaches to these and to other problems of equal importance: Either as Plenary Lectures at the Seventh European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research at the University of Vienna, Austria, (Professors Stafford Beer, Helga Nowotny, and Robert Rosen (Ross Ashby Memorial Lecture)) or as Invited Lectures to the Austrian Society