🚀 go-pugleaf

[From Bruce Gregory (990426.1412 EDT)]

Rick Marken (990426.1030)


> I always read to the end before responding. This has nothing
> to do with my complaint about the creepy things you said in
> the _middle_ of your post. What you said in the middle of your
> post was:
>
> > I worry when you say that an entire profession of successful
> > engineers do not understand control theory.
>
> I'd worry too, if I had said such a thing. But I didn't.

Here's what you did say:

Rick Marken (990420.1300)

> It is perfectly possible for people to understand control theory
> (as Bruce Abbott does) and not know that a closed negative
> feedback loops is organized around the control of perceptual
> variables. Control theory has been applied to behavior since 1945
> (at least). Many of these applications have been done by people
> who had a very good understanding of the mathematics of control
> theory. In none of those cases did the control theorist understand
> that a control system controls a perceptual representation, not
> an objective state of affairs; and s/he certainly didn't understand
> what this means in terms of understanding the behavior of the living
> systems to which their theory was being applied.

Perhaps you can see why I interpreted your statement the way that I did.
Then again, perhaps you can't. If I were a control engineer I _might_
take umbrage at your remarks. Perhaps your statements were directed only
at control engineers with the audacity to attempt to apply their
knowledge to understanding the behavior of living systems.


Bruce Gregory