[From Bruce Abbott (960818.1620 EST)]
Rick Marken (960818.1400) --
Bruce Abbott had suggested that Skinner was capitalizing on the pigeon's
navigational capabilities when he used the pigeon to guide a bomb to a
target. I think of "navigational capabilites" as the ability to determine
one's current position, select a course to a target position and "steer
the course" towards that target position. So from my point of view the
pigeon in the bomb was not navigating -- or using any special navigational
capabilities.
Now Rick, let's not put the blame on me -- I never said anything of the kind!
Bruce
[From Rick Marken (960818.1750)]
Me:
Bruce Abbott had suggested that Skinner was capitalizing on the pigeon's
navigational capabilities when he used the pigeon to guide a bomb to a
target.
Bruce Abbott (960818.1620 EST) --
Now Rick, let's not put the blame on me -- I never said anything of
the kind!
You're right! Sorry. I remembered incorrectly. What you said was:
Bruce Abbott (960809.0820 EST) --
he [Skinner] recognized that the bird's own flight is governed by
similar mechanisms.
and
Bruce Abbott (960810.1015 EST) --
Although inertial guidance systems were available (e.g., V2 rocket),
their accuracy was as nothing compared to that of the visually-guided
pigeon system.
These statements apparently gave me the impression that you were saying
that Skinner used a pigeon because it could navigate to targets better
than existing navigational (inertial guidance) systems. In other words,
I thought you were saying that the pigeon was used to fly (navigate) the
bomb to the target. Can you see how I might have been fooled into thinking
this by the way you compared an inertial guidance system to the "visually-
guided pigeon system"? I think this is where I got the idea that you were
saying that Skinner was capitalizing on the pigeon's superior navigational
capabilities. It wasn't clear to me that what you meant was that the
pigeon's ability to peck at targets was being used as the perceptual
input function to the control system that was actually going to fly
the bomb. I'll try to read more carefully next time;-)
Best
Rick