Living Control Systems (not by Powers)

CSGnet Archive CSG2014
7

[Martin Taylor 2014.04.11.11.20]

[From Fred Nickols (2014.04.11.1114 EDT)]

I knew I'd seen the name Bayliss before. He is cited in Introduction to
Modern Psychology edited by Robertson and Powers.

Fred Nickols

Cited, yes, but no differences between the Powers-Robertson approach and Bayliss are mentioned, whhc suggests that they are the same, but used in the biological rather than the psychological context. The only cite is in this paragraph: (IMP page 2)
-------quote-------
How do we state this new paradigm? By exactly reversing Skinner's position (above) that the world acts on the organism. [italic] The organism is an enviroment control system[/italic], not a reflex machine. This view has been increasingly accepted among biologists ( see Reiner, 1975; Bayliss, 1966; Kalmus, 1966), but it has yet to gain wide recognition among psychologists.
--------end quote-------

It sounds as though the way Powers and Robertson thought about what they were doing was that they were extending into psychology an idea that was then becoming popular in biology. So we might expect the unread portion of Bayliss's book to have familiar ideas, but not used in a psychological context.

Thanks for the catch, Fred.

Martin

ยทยทยท

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Taylor [mailto:mmt-csg@mmtaylor.net]
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 10:51 AM
To: csgnet@lists.illinois.edu
Subject: Re: Living Control Systems (not by Powers)

[Martin Taylor 2014.04.11.10.40]

[From Matti Kolu (2014.04.11.1430 CET)]

Martin Taylor 2014.01.20.00.12 --

CSGnet might be interested to know that there exists a 1974 book
entitled "Living Control Systems (New Science)" by L.E.Bayliss. I
never heard of him, but since Amazon was offering a used copy for $10
including shipping, I ordered it. I know nothing of Bayliss, but
clicking on his Amazon link, he has three physiology books dated from
1960, including this one. It will be interesting to see what he means
by the term, and if it turns out to be anything like PCT, whether he

has

many citations in the literature.

Have you had the time to look through the book? Did you find anything
noteworthy in it?

Matti

I received the book some time ago, but hadn't opened it until I got your
message. I will look further into it, but here's an early passage (p3).
You can judge whether it is promising:

---------quote-------
So far we have assumed that the fluctuations in demand that the control
system has to cope with are random. without any particular pattern. But in
some fo the ,pst valuable kinds of control system this is not so:
they are given definite instructions on which they have to act precisely,

and

they do this in the same way as those already described, by comparing the
results of their activities (their "output" as it is
called) and ensuring that the difference between them (the misalignment or
"error") is zero, or as close to zero as possible. (The terms "inout"
and "output" of a control system are sometimes confusing: the input to the
ball-valve of the water tank is the water level, lowered by an outflow of
water; the output is the movement of the valve which controls the inflow

of

water).
----------------------

If you equate "demand" with "reference value", it seems to me that he gets
it right. Control systems control their inputs, and their outputs affect

the

environment. But who knows what lies later in the book?

Martin