'A corporation, or a government department isn't a conscious being, but it is an artificial intelligence. It has the capability to take decisions which are completely distinct from the intentions of any of the people who compose it. And under stressful conditions, it can go stark raving mad.'

A rigorous new framework for understanding the world of the future

Machine learning and cybernetics play an important role in many modern electronic, computer and communications systems. Automated processing of information by these systems requires intelligent analysis of various types of data and optimal decision making. In recent years, we have witnessed a rapid expansion of research and development activities in machine learning and cybernetics. To provide opportunities for researchers in these areas to share their ideas and foster collaborations, the International Conference on Machines and Cybernetics (ICMLC) has been held annually since 2002. The conference series has achieved a great success in attracting a large number of paper submissions and participants and enabling fruitful exchanges among academic and industrial researchers and postgraduate students. In 2005, the conference (ICMLC 2005) received 2461 full paper submissions and the Program Committee selected 1050 of them for presentation. It is especially encouraging that the conference is attracting more and more international attention. This year, there are contributions from 21 countries and 211 universities worldwide. Out of the 1050 papers presented at the conference, we selected 114 papers to be published in this volume of Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

The Nazi’s never surrendered and planned their 4th Reich using neurocognitive weapons. Going underground their technology made it’s way to S. America, the Soviet Union, the United States, among other places. We all are bound by the new rules of corporate fascism, long planned by Himmler, and his main strategy for a 4th Reich, financial control.

This volume contains two review articles: "Stochastic Pro­ gramming" by Vo V. Kolbin, and "Application of Queueing-Theoretic Methods in Operations Research, " by N. Po Buslenko and A. P. Cherenkovo The first article covers almost all aspects of stochastic programming. Many of the results presented in it have not pre­ viously been surveyed in the Soviet literature and are of interest to both mathematicians and economists. The second article com­ prises an exhaustive treatise on the present state of the art of the statistical methods of queueing theory and the statistical modeling of queueing systems as applied to the analysis of complex systems.

This work is a continuation of earlier volumes under the heading "Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics, and Theo- retical Cybernetics," published as part of the "Itogi Nauki" series.

The development of science consists not only of deepening and widening the already established scientific disciplines but also depends on the emergence of new ones. The emergence and development of new sciences is influenced primarily by two factors: isolation and generalisation. Isolation of scientific disciplines is due to the discovery of new objects of investigation and the emergence of specific scientific trends.

The United States is being bombarded with cyber-attacks. From the surge in ransomware groups targeting critical infrastructure to nation states compromising the software supply chain and corporate email servers, malicious cyber activities have reached an all-time high. Russia attracts the most attention, but China is vastly more sophisticated. They have a common interest in exploiting the openness of the Internet and social media—and our democracy—to erode confidence in our institutions and to exacerbate our societal rifts to prevent us from mounting an effective response. Halting this digital aggression will require Americans to undertake sweeping changes in how we educate, organize and protect ourselves and to ask difficult questions about how vulnerable our largest technology giants are.

The United States is being bombarded with cyber-attacks. From the surge in ransomware groups targeting critical infrastructure to nation states compromising the software supply chain and corporate email servers, malicious cyber activities have reached an all-time high. Russia attracts the most attention, but China is vastly more sophisticated. They have a common interest in exploiting the openness of the Internet and social media—and our democracy—to erode confidence in our institutions and to exacerbate our societal rifts to prevent us from mounting an effective response. Halting this digital aggression will require Americans to undertake sweeping changes in how we educate, organize and protect ourselves and to ask difficult questions about how vulnerable our largest technology giants are.