[Erling Jorgensen (951028.2230CDT)]
[Bill Powers (951027.0530MDT)]
I really appreciated your post about pre- and re-organization. It was
especially revealing to consider that an unformed reference signal is
functionally equivalent to a reference signal of zero. As you put it --
A control system with a reference signal set to zero behaves to maintain
the perceptual signal near zero: it avoids experiencing any amount of
that perceptual signal. So we would predict that the first control
processes involving higher levels of perception would avoid perceiving
the new variable!
Maybe this is why, when we're still in the process of learning something
new, we're often in the position of saying, "I just don't see it."
That would be quite literally true. The perceptual input is not yet
formed, or if it is, it's being driven to zero! What you bring out,
is that this is virtually the same as saying, "I _won't_ see it."
In other words, "My reference/_preference is to not see it." "Can't"
and "won't" are fundamentally the same in this respect. So maybe part
of learning is establishing (or stumbling upon) a reference of not-zero
for a given perception, so control can begin...
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One thing I have been wondering about for a while is the following.
What is your current thinking about the type of perception a "person"
is? I'm assuming it's much more elaborate than just a Configuration
perception.
Specifically, do you consider it (a) a System Concept -- something
like a living-system-embedded-in-relationship? Is it (b) an Order
Reduction phenomenon -- that is, person as of the Category-human or
of the Category-friend or sometimes a particular Category-of-one?
Is it (c) in some respects both? (You'll probably surprise me with
some other option (d).)
[ A second layer of questions concerns whether "self" -- if it is
perceived -- is a similar perception to "person". But that seems
to me a much more tangled ball of yarn, (much more susceptible to
"self" deception, if you will), and one I'm not sure I want to get
into as yet.]
I guess I wonder about those two levels (i.e., System Concepts and
Categories/Order Reduction), because they seem the most amenable
to "social construction" and/or "coordinated management" of their
meanings. In other words, while they arise as perceptions _within_
the person -- by a process similar to your posting on (re)organization
-- they nonetheless become stabilized and controllable as perceptions
by the social and linguistic nature of the environmental feedback
function. At least that's how I see it at present.
There seems to be quite a bit of traffic on CSGnet these days, but
even some brief reflections would be helpful. Thanks.
Erling