🚀 go-pugleaf

[From Rick Marken (990428.1020)]

Bruce Abbott (990428.0800 EST)--

> Simon began with a common observation:  watching an ant on
> the beach making its way back to its nest.  He observed that
> the ant had many obstacles in its path, and often took a
> circuitous route as required to get around them and continue
> toward the nest.  He noted that if you drew the ant's path on
> paper it would appear to be complex -- lots of loops and
> wiggles and sudden turns -- but that this complexity need not
> imply a parallel complexity within the ant.

I think the problem in this discussion turns on failure to
recognize that "behavior" refers to both  _acts_ and _results_.
Simon focused only on acts; the means used to keep results
(controlled variables) under control.  He noticed that complex
acts (like a circuitous route) mirror complex environmental
events (obstacles). What he didn't notice is that results of
these acts (like getting back to the anthill) do _not_ mirror
the complex environmental events that _should_ affect them.

Behavior _appears_ complex when controlled results (variables)
are ignored. Behavior can appear to be much simpler when looked at
in terms of controlled variables. Simon's notion that "complex
actions reflect complexity in the environment rather than a complex
internal organization" is a conclusion he came to only because
he knew nothing about _controlled variables_. When one looks at
behavior in terms of actions (ignoring the variables controlled
by these actions) behavior seems to "reflect the complexity of the
environment"; but when one looks at behavior in terms of controlled
variables, behavior seems to have nothing to do with the complexity
of the environment; any "complexity" one sees in behavior seems
to be _independent_ of the complexity of the environment.

So Simon's apparently wise insight (that "complex actions reflect
complexity in the environment rather than a complex internal
organization") tells us nothing more than that Simon (like all
psychologists before and since) didn't know a controlled variable
when he was looking right at one. He couldn't see, for example,
that the ant's "circuitous route" is itself a controlled variable
that reflects none of the environmental complexities (changes in
slope and texture of the terrain) that should affect it. These
environmental complexities are not "reflected" in the ant's
circuitous route because the ant varies it's gait (lower level
actions) in exactly the right way so it's route is protected
from them.

The environmentally determined complexity Simon saw in behavior
reflects nothing more that Simon's inclination to look at the
phenomenon of control from a particular point of view in his
own perceptual hierarchy: in terms of environment-action
relationships instead of in terms of controlled results of
those relationships.

Once again, Simon's problem comes down to not knowing what a
controlled variable _is_ and, therefore, not noticing this
aspect of behavior when he was looking right at it.

Best

Rick
---
Richard S. Marken                 Phone or Fax:  310 474-0313
Life Learning Associates         e-mail: rmarken@earthlink.net
http://home.earthlink.net/~rmarken