[From Rick Marken (930509.0900)]
Bill Powers (930509.0830 MDT) --
Rick's list has most of the stuff in it, but I agree with Ave
that it's rather long to go into in this paper.
I agree too. I just wanted to see how many misconceptions I could
think of. Maybe the way to write this section is too say "here are
all the common misconceptions about control theory [with exact
quotations from the published articles as Bill suggests]. Obviously,
there is not enough space to deal with all of them [the misconceptions
themselves might actually take several pages] but we have shown in
various places, often with experimental data and working simulations,
why they are misconceptions. Here are the references....". Or we
could pick a couple of important misconceptions and show why they are,
indeed, misconceptions. This approach is less attractive to me because
I think it has been done many times (Bill's Psych Review paper for
starters) with little effect.
I was going to respond to Avery's comments about "feedforward",
"attractors", "limit cycles" (another great addition to the
misconceptions list), and "dynamic systems analysis" but Bill
took care of it -- doing a much better job than I ever could.
I think this "feedforward" myth will not disappear until people
start trying to build models that incorporte it. Then they will
realize that "feedforward" is just caused output (which doesn't
work as a model of real behavior) or variations in references
that are part of the control of higher order variables --ie.
good old fashioned feedback control.
ยทยทยท
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My daughter is keeping a quote book which she let me look at. Here
are a few choice morsels that seem particularly relevant to CSGNet
and PCT.
"Seek first to understand, then to be understood" -- Unknown
"If we're all thinking alike, we're not all thinking" -- Bill Clinton
To the "information in perception" fans -- just to let you know
that it's happened before:
"It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right" -- Moliere
To those who think I am saying "you're wrong, stupid" when I say
"you're wrong":
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" -- Eleanor Roosevelt
Happy Mother's Day
Rick