[From Rick Marken (970502.0800)]
Bill Powers (970430.1706 MST) --
It's pretty clear what you missed in Rick's statement. The
observer does indeed _observe_ the effect of the disturbances
on the SUPPOSED controlled variable...
Is that problem taken care of, too, now?
Martin Taylor (970501 10:20) --
Yes, if Rick agrees that this is indeed what he meant.
Agreed.
In that case, I apologize to all and sundry, and Rick, for
wasting net bandwidth.
No need to apologize. I think the "Disturbances" thread has been VERY
valuable -- certainly not a waste of bandwidth. Thanks to you, Bill
Powers [(970429.1309 MST), (970430.1155 MST) and (970430.1706 MST)] has
given us a detailed tutorial on how to do PCT research. I found
it very useful.
Hans Blom (970502) --
My theory says that _everything_ I know exists only in my
imagination (internal model)...My theory also says that _you_
are talking your own private theology, based on a different
internal model. So be it. There's no escape.
Actually, your theology says that there IS an escape! Your theology
(model-based control) says that a theology (model) can be improved
by comparing the predictions of that theology to the actual
perceptual results of actions based on that theology. This is called
"doing science".
If you actually behaved according to this aspect of your theology (if
you _tested_ the predictions of your theology against experimental
evidence) you would see that the fit of your theology to the actual
behavior of living systems (except, of course, to the behavior
called "doing science") is very poor. You would then reject your
theology of behavior in favor of a simpler and more correct one -- PCT.
But, then, your theology would no longer be a theology; just a testable
model of behavior.
But it's pretty clear that, for you, model-based control IS a
theology (rather than a scientific theory) and this seems to be a matter
of principle with you. So you will not submit your theology (which,
paradoxically, describes control systems as "science doing systems") to
scientific test. That is why your discussion of
your theology (model based control) is so incredibly uninteresting
to me. Since you are not willing to subject your ideas to empirical
test, what you say is largely a bunch of white noise.
Best
Rick