[From Rick Marken (960811.1100)]
Bill Powers (960811.0945 MDT) --
The apostrophe is NEVER used to set off the "s" that makes a word plural
(as in "pigeon's inside our thermostat's").
Well, the apostrophe is SOMETIMES used to set off the "s" that makes a
word plural; the question is whether it is used that way intentionally or
not; see if you can tell;-)
Bill Leach (960810.0901 EDT) --
It probably was not until the mid to late 60's that even a very crude form
of Skinner's Pigeon-based control system was even possible.
Bruce Abbott (960811.0845 EST) --
There were NO "electronic representations" available at the time.
I misunderstood Phil's description of the pigeon guided missile system (or
whatever it was). I thought the pigeon was trained to keep a cursor
representing the 2-D position of the missile itself on target. Apparently,
however, all the pigeon was doing was pecking at the target as seen through
a window. The peck's told a real control system the location of the target.
So, as Bill Powers (960811.0945 MDT) points out, the " pigeon simply served
as a perceptual input function" to a control system in the missile. This is,
indeed, a clever use of the animal; the bird is being used as a perceptual
device rather than as a control system; Skinner definitely gets point's for
this clever approach to furthering the violent aim's of his fellow
incompetent's;-)
Me:
Bruce, what happened? Were you bitten by a Skinerian ghoul over the weekend?
Bruce:
No, I'm the same lovable guy I've always been!
You wouldn't be less lovable even if you were a Skinnerean ghoul. The only
problem with Skinnerean ghoul's is that they act like control theorist's by
night but return to their Skinnerean crypt's at sunrise. This just means that
they usually only show up at the evening session's of the CSG;-)
Best's
Rick