Our world is at crisis. Global challenges abound. However, they have a “dark” and a “bright” side. The dark side is the imminent danger of the breakdown of interdependent societies with the perspective of extermination of civilised human life. The bright side marks a possible entrance to a new stage of evolution of humanity, to the self-organisation of a humane world society.

Cybernetics, systems research, the sciences of complexity – all of them have the potential to endow the subjects of history with guidance and a means for mastering the current transformation. But the readiness of cybernetic, systems and complex thinking for the tasks ahead has to be continuously reassessed and improved. The time has come to reflect on the aims, the scope and the tools of a multitude of approaches. Platforms for the self-understanding of the whole field are needed now more than ever.

Since 1972, the European Meetings on Cybernetics and Systems Research (EMCSR) have been held in Austria every two years. They were organised by the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies (OSGK) founded in 1969 (which established a special institution, the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI), in 1984), in cooperation with organisations such as the Department of Medical Cybernetics and Artificial Intelligence, University of Vienna, and the International Federation for Systems Research (IFSR).

The upcoming meetings will be organised by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (BCSSS) in cooperation with the Austrian Computer Society (OCG) and a number of other organisations in the field.