🚀 go-pugleaf

[From Bruce Gregory (990421.1000 EDT)]

Rick Marken (990420.1810)


> Real engineers who design real control systems have used control
> theory to study humans as S-R devices; these same engineers have
> dismissed PCT because they know that control systems control
> objective variables in the environment, not their own perceptions.
> These engineers are not students. Do they understand control
> theory?

Do the control systems they design work? I'll bet the folks who designed
my thermostat and cruise control (both of which work quite well) didn't
understand PCT. Since there are many more of them than there are of us,
I'll let them call their discipline control theory and grant that they
know what they are doing. I guess I'm just soft on control theory.

An engineer thinks of a TV remote control as an open-loop device for
controlling the TV. I think of it as part of control loop by which I
control my perception of program. Each model seems to works adequately
for the modeler. The models do not clash by predicting different
outcomes. The engineer is not interested in which channel I watch. I am.
Further he cares about how the remote control works, I don't. I care
about how I work; the engineer rarely thinks about how either he or I
work.


Bruce Gregory