DIfferent Worlds

[From Rick Marken (980421.0740)]

I have noticed that people often talk as though human problems --
conflicts -- result from the fact that we all live in different
perceptual worlds; we "see things differently". For exmaple, in
the movie "Annie Hall" there is a great scene where Woody Allen
and Diane Keaton are asked by their respective psychiatrists
about their sex life. Allen says "It's not very good; we hardly
ever have sex; maybe two or three times a week"; Keaton says "It's
not very good; we have sex almost all the time; maybe two or
three times a week".

I think many people would say that the problem here is that
Allen and Keaton live in two different perceptual worlds; they
see their sex lives differently. But they clearly _don't_ see
their sex lives differnetly; that's the funny part; They both
agree that they are having sex about "two or three times a week".
The problem here (both from the Annie Hall and the PCT perspective)
is that Allen and Keaton live in the _same_ perceptual world;
they perceive the world in terms of the same perceptual variable
(frequency of sex); they just have different _goals_ (references)
for the state of this perceptual variable.

PCT shows that most human problems (conflicts) result _not_ from
the fact that we live in different perceptual worlds (perceive the
world in terms of different perceptual variables); they result
from the fact that we live in basically the _same_ perceptual
world. Probelms (conflicts) occur when want the same perceptual
variables in different reference (goal) states.

Indeed, a case can be made (and has been, by Bill Powers in a
paper called "Degree of Freedom in Behavior", reprinted in LCS,
p. 221) for the idea that people would have fewer problems (conflicts)
to the extent that they could live in different perceptual worlds.
In the "Degrees of Freedom..." paper Bill shows that conflict is
less likely when people control different perceptual aspects of
their worlds.

I am currently trying to develop a java demonstration of the
atvantages of living in different perceptual worlds. Any suggestions
for the detailed design of the demo would be very welcome.

Best

Rick

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