Dr Charles Musès – in memoriam 1919-2000

Citation

(2002), "Dr Charles Musès – in memoriam 1919-2000", Kybernetes, Vol. 31 No. 7/8. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2002.06731gaa.002

Dr Charles Musès – in memoriam 1919-2000

He was born in Jersey City USA, on 28th April, 1919 and graduated with a BSc, from the City University of New York in 1938 in the major subjects of mathematics and chemistry. Whilst at Columbia University, New York, he completed an MA in philosophy in 1947 and a PhD in 1951 for his thesis in symbolic logic.

Cyberneticians and systemists are already aware of the many prestigious and demanding posts that he held during his working life. He was, for example:

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  The chairman of the first international conference on bio-simulation, with W.S. McCulloch and Ross Asby, Locano 1960. (The proceedings were published in 1962 under the title Aspects of the Theory of Artificial Intelligence, 1962, with a second edition published in 1966, by Plenum Press, New York).

  He co-lectured with Norbert Wiener under NATO sponsorship at the School of Theoretical Physics at the University of Naples in 1962 and was requested by the Italian government's National Research Council to write Wiener's official obituary in 1964 after the latter's untimely fatal accident in Sweden, and to edit his posthumously published paper, "The History and Prehistory of Cybernetics"

  At NASA, in 1970, he was invited to lecture on "Hypernumbers: Properties and Applications".

Amongst the many offices he held, several being honorary, he strove for perfection in all his works, introducing an enthusiasm for the task-in-hand. These included:

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  Director, Mathematics & Morphology Research Centre (Switzerland, with editorial and research offices in the USA and Canada). He held this office from 1965 until his death.

  Under the editorship of Professor J. Rose he was the Foundations Editor (since 1982) and Assistant Editor from 1970 to 1981 of Kybernetes – The International Journal of Systems and Cybernetics. Later, when the journal was published by MCB University Press he was invited to join the Editorial Advisory Board.

  Editorial Advisor, International Journal of Biomedical Computing (1970–2000).

  He was also a Series Advisory Board member for Frontiers in Systems Science from 1975 to 1985.

Dr Musès was also invited to join the Directorate of the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics, which is a federation of organisations and institutions from over 50 countries. He became the Director of Research and held the post with distinction until 2000. Many of our newer readers will not be aware that he served as editor-in-chief of a non-fiction publishing house in the 1950's, where he pioneered an archaeological best seller, Samuel Noah Kramer's "History Begins at Sumer". In addition to these many diverse interests and activities he also edited from 1968-1973 the Journal for the Study of Consciousness. Selected essays from this journal were later published in the book Consciousness and Reality (1972).

We are grateful to Dr Musès wife, for providing us with so many facets of his life. For example she tells us that:

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  From an early age (9) he was attracted to hieroglyphic symbols of ancient religions and shortly after at the age of 12 he began intensively to study ciphers, codes and potter's marks, as well as the theory of optical illusions, feeling curious as to the reality behind them. He has published in several interdisciplinary contexts, including anthropology, religious studies and philosophy.

Dr Musès was an active Life Fellow of the Explorers Club having been elected to the Club on the basis of his journey to the Lacandone Mayan Indians of the Chiapas, with whom he made an extensive stay of several months. He made other journeys in the interests of research throughout his life, including ones to Sikkim, India, Africa and to the mountains of North Yemen, as well as most recently journeying to Siberia, Tuva and Mongol Buryiatia in 1999.

We are greatly indebted to Mrs Jacqueline Musès for providing us with so many fascinating insights into her husband's life that crossed the boundaries of mathematics, science and the interdisciplines of cybernetics. The following bibliography lists but some of his important contributions to these fields and also contains details of Dr Musès' published books, the titles of which illustrate the wealth of interest and the range of his writings.