Fred
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From: “Fred Nickols” (fred@nickols.us via csgnet Mailing List) csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2018 9:06 PM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Controlled Quantity
[From Fred Nickols (2018.05.22.1446 ET)]
I’m trying to clarify the Controlled Quantity (q.i.) in my own thinking, so bear with me.
It occurs to me that care is needed when addressing this issue; more specifically, you have to be certain you are talking about a variable. For example, the amount of coffee in my coffee cup is a variable; the coffee cup itself is not.
When we “behave” (e.g., pour coffee into a cup), the behavior of pouring coffee affects the amount of coffee in the cup. However much we agree with that, we also have to remember that the amount of coffee in the cup is a perception. Suppose I want the cup to be half full (which is an imagined perception, I think, as well as a reference signal). My behavior of pouring coffee is the means by which I bring my perception of the amount of coffee in the cup to the desired level (half full). So, just as Bill stated in the title of his book, behavior is the control of perception. In this case, the perception of the amount of coffee in the cup.
The q.i. in this case is the amount of coffee I perceive to be in the cup. Thus, the q.i. is itself a perception. The perceptual signal §, which is an analog of q.i., is also what I perceive to be the amount of coffee in the cup. What is the distinction between q.i. and p?
HB : On the basis of perception we assume what q.i. could be. In Ricks case what is written in Bills books, it’s quite obvious that his perception does not "correspond to “q.i.” as he what he wants to read. He is the time making faulls interpretation of what is written in Bills’ books in respect to other readers. So in the case of Rick we could say that “q.i.” and “p” are not in any relation.
But usually “p” in PCT represent “state of affairs” or “q.i.”. That’s what Bill wrote about “sensor function” :
Bill P (LCS I) :
The sensor function creates an ongoing relationship between some set of environmental physical variables (v’s) and a Sensor signal inside the system, an internal analog of some external state of affairs.
Boris
Regards,
Fred Nickols
Managing Partner
“Assistance at a Distance”