Happy birthday

CSGnet Archive CSG2004
1

[From Dag Forssell (2004.07.16 14:30)]

Phil, Bill,

Happy Birthday (belatedly) to Phil (87 on June 25) and Happy Birthday
(early) Bill (78 on August 29):

Here is to you! http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com

Completing this website is a major milestone in my effort to promote Phil's
book and PCT.

I have been working on the content all spring. Bill has updated several of
the PCT demos to Delphi (Windows) versions, with more to come, including
some revisions. And at long last, I am getting the hang of putting websites
together (with much appreciated hands-on help from my daughter Karin).

My aim has been to support Phil's book with a website that allows anyone
who thinks like an engineer or physical scientist (in terms of mechanisms
that generate action rather than descriptive word pictures) to conclude
that there is something to these wild claims made for PCT. It seems clear
enough to me that people who skipped the techie subjects in school and
generally think in terms of descriptions rather than underlying mechanisms,
never will grasp the difference. All of us who have been involved with PCT
for some length of time realize the truth of the quote Bill provided on
June 29, 2003: "Mary says: At the blah-blah-blah level, HPCT is no better
than any other theory."

I am now ready to mail a variety of journals, magazines and major
newspapers an envelope containing a folder (Actually the laminated book
cover scored to become a folder), a 20 or 24 page booklet with sample
pages, a short cover letter and a few pages from the website such as the
home page, the publishers statement and the first part of the About PCT page.

Suggestions (with editor's and publication's name and address) for
appropriate journals, magazines and papers will be appreciated. Comments on
the website too.

Naturally, I will be tweaking this site forever; nipping here, tucking
there. Adding papers and such. How I write some of these statements
naturally depends on whom I am trying to reach. I'll take pointers on that
too. I figure engineers in management, concerned about leadership and such,
able to understand B:CP and the demos, are the best possible audience for PCT.

I have not forgotten about setting up PCTresources with much more reference
information, but first things first. I got started on PCTresources a year
and a half ago; Karin helped me with the basic setup and I prepared many
files, but then our move to Hayward overwhelmed me and Phil's book took
precedence; I had some real problems with my then hosting company and
PCTresources slipped into the background. I will get back to it soon. After
all, Phil's book refers to it :).

Best, Dag

dag@livingcontrolsystems.com

Dag Forssell
Living Control Systems Publishing
2740 Gamble Court, Hayward, CA 94542-2402 USA
Tel: +1 510 727 0377 Fax: +1 510 372 2776

2

[From Bruce Gregory (2004.0716.1855)]

[From Dag Forssell (2004.07.16 14:30)]

My aim has been to support Phil's book with a website that allows anyone
who thinks like an engineer or physical scientist (in terms of mechanisms
that generate action rather than descriptive word pictures) to conclude
that there is something to these wild claims made for PCT. It seems clear
enough to me that people who skipped the techie subjects in school and
generally think in terms of descriptions rather than underlying mechanisms,
never will grasp the difference. All of us who have been involved with PCT
for some length of time realize the truth of the quote Bill provided on
June 29, 2003: "Mary says: At the blah-blah-blah level, HPCT is no better
than any other theory."

i have to take exception with Mary. Here is a blah-blah-blah level description of PCT.

"It is a phenomenon which we understand very thoroughly from a quantitative point of view."

"Now suppose that pick up a lead pencil. To do this I have to move certain muscles. However, for all of us but a few expert anatomists, we do not know what these muscles are; and even among the anatomists, there are few, if any, who can perform the act by a conscious willing in succession of the contraction of each muscle concerned. One the contrary, what we will _is to pick the pencil up._ Once we have determined on this, our motion proceeds in such a way that we may say roughly that the amount by which the pencil is not yet picked up is decreased at each stage. This part of the action is in full consciousness."

"To perform an action in such a manner, there must be a report to the nervous system, conscious or unconscious, of the amount by which we have failed to pick up the pencil at each instant."

I claim that if you can understand the above you can understand PCT. (No prize if you can identify the author and the publication!)

Bruce Gregory

Certainty has more appeal than truth.