[From Bruce Abbott (960627.1510 EST)]
Bill Powers (960627.0900 MDT) --
By the way, I wrote a letter to Science commenting on some findings by a
Japanese team that call the Bizzi model of motor control somewhat into
question. I put the Little Man model into the public domain and gave
instructions for downloading it from the Web. The authors recommended
against publishing the letter, because they said that if I really had
anything important to offer, Bizzi and others would have cited me.
Science concurred. Some of you may recall that Science turned down a
technical comment in which I describe the same model, and that I then
sent copies of the program to Bizzi and two others who participated in
the rejection. Never heard another word. Ain't science grand?
Bill, this is really one of the best examples of a "catch 22" I've seen in a
long time. Let's see, the competition doesn't cite you, so you must not
have anything important to say and therefore cannot get what you have to say
published. And because what you have to say does not get published, there
is nothing to cite. And since there is nothing to cite, you must not have
anything important to say. Hmm, I seem to be going in circles -- it's a
CLOSED LOOP, and you're NOT IN THE LOOP. Ironic, isn't it?
For those who may not be familiar with Joseph Heller's classic, _Catch 22_,
the term applies to the problem faced by Heller's mythical WWII bomber
crews, for whom the number of missions which must be flown before they can
be rotated home keeps being increased just before they complete the
requirement. Catch 22 goes something like this. If you are crazy, you can
get a Section 8 and won't have to fly any more missions. To get a Section
8, you must first apply for it. But if you are really crazy, you will want
to fly more missions, will not apply for a Section 8, and will continue to
fly missions. And if you apply for a Section 8, that proves that you are
_not_ crazy (because no sane person would want to fly more missions), the
Section 8 will be denied, and you will have to fly more missions. Catch 22.
There's no way out.
Regards,
Bruce