[Mallmann, C.; Marcus, S.; Calude, C.; Păun, G.; Mamale, C.; Romalo, D.; Tătărăm, M.; Gheorghe, A.] Mathematical methods in problems of development. (Metode matematice în problematica dezvoltării). (Romanian) Zbl 0581.92029 Probleme Globale ale Omenirii. Bucureşti: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România. 197 p. (1982). The purpose of the authors is to contribute to the project of the United Nations University: Goals, processes and indicators of development, from a theoretical point of view; more precisely, to construct mathematical models of human and social development. The first part of the book concerns human needs and contains a study of C. Mallmann and the editor, Empirical information and theoretical constructs in the study of human needs, which proposes a distinction between two levels of abstraction, the first of which corresponds to the empirical activity of a direct intuitive observation of phenomena and the second is determined by the introduction of theoretical entities. This study is followed by a second one, with the same title, by C. Calude, the editor and G. Păun, where the preceding problems obtain a more operational character by being transformed into algorithmic procedures and computer problems. This first part of the book concludes with a study of C. Mamale and G. Păun: From hierarchies of human needs to classification in social groups, coevolution vectors, an investigation of hierarchies of human needs in relation with illness and social environment. The second part of the book - Social indicators - contains three studies. The first, Ethical base of desirable social dynamics, by D. Romalo, identifies a most general indicator in order to estimate the human value of any social process. The second one by G. Păun, Restrictions concerning the aggregation of social indicators, explains why aggregation is necessary and at the same time impossible. In the third study of the second part, by M. Tătărăm, Cohesion, competition and critical group size in social groups, definitions of several indicators are given with new points of view. Finally the third part of this collection, Energy, contains the paper: Alternative decisions in the programs of energy development by A. Gheorghe and I. Purica, which uses system theoretical and topological methods in order to explain the decision behavior of present and future energy infrastructures of any given economy. Reviewer: A.Haimovici MSC: 91D99 Mathematical sociology (including anthropology) 91B76 Environmental economics (natural resource models, harvesting, pollution, etc.) 92-02 Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to biology Keywords:Mathematical methods; Development; Marcus, Solomon (ed.); mathematical models of human and social development; Empirical information; theoretical constructs; levels of abstraction; algorithmic procedures; computer problems; classification in social groups; coevolution vectors; hierarchies of human needs; social environment; Ethical base; social dynamics; aggregation of social indicators; Cohesion; competition; critical group size; energy development PDFBibTeX XML