[From Rick Marken (961001.1320)]
Bill Benzon (960930) --
Hi Bill. Long time, no see. I think the last time I saw you was at the
Cybernetics meeting in Philadelphia, in about 1983 or 1984. It's nice to see
you on the net. You said:
how do you arrive at "collectively controlled perceptions"? People can't
jack into one another's brains and see what they're perceiving nor is
there some master controller that's jacked into everyone's brains and is
operating to bring their perceptions into synch.
Kent McClelland (961001.1030 CDT) replied:
I have no such nonsense in mind and, furthermore, [I offer] an "account of
the social process," which in fact focuses on "collective control," not
"collective perceptions."
Kent makes a very good point here. People can collectively control a variable
even though that variable is perceived differently by each person in the
collective. Kent's discussion of how this works is not mere speculation; it
is based on modeling and research. Kent took the time to run simulatons of
interacting control systems to see what happens when they are controlling the
same or similar perceptions relative to the same or similar references. Kent
also based his analysis on the results of Tom Bourbon's experimental studies
of two person, cooperative interactions and Powers' model of multiple
control systems (a collective) interacting in a "crowd".
I think it would help this discussion if you (Bill B.) could tell us what you
mean by "collectively controlled perceptions". Is a collectively controlled
perception the _same_ perceptual variable controlled by every individual in
the collective? For example, is the distance from cursor to target a
collectively controlled perception if a collection of individuals is
controlling exactly the same perception of that variable? If so, does
collective control require that the controlled perceptual variable be
controlled relative to the same reference in all individuals in the
collective? For example, is perception of target/cursor distance collectively
controlled only if everyone in the collective tries to keep this perception
at zero?
Might a "collectively controlled perception" be a perception that is
experienced only by people outside of the collective though it depends on
the actions of those in collective. For example, are the card stunts at a
football game a collectively controlled perception? Here the perception of
the picture made by the cards (as seen by the fans on the other side of the
stadium, who are not in the collective ) depends on the coordinated actions
of everyone in the card section (the collective) who (unless they have TV's)
cannot experience the perception they are creating for others.
Best
Rick