[From Brian D'Agostino (950918)]
Rick Marken --
My post to your compuserve address seems to have bounced so I am
putting my message to you on CSG-L. I hope you are still on the
net.
I have decided to stay on the net for the foreseeable future, so
you can continue to communicate with me here.
It seems to me that the net is a great forum for discussing ideas;
and if you really are interested in developing a PCT model you've
got all the experts right here in cyberspace;-) If, however, your
application of PCT is already satisfactory from your perspective
then, I suppose, the net won't be that useful.
I agree that at it's best, the CSG is the perfect forum for
developing a PCT model, and that's one of the reasons I have
decided to stay on. My other reason is that I will soon be reading
_Behavior: the control of perception_--which until now I have only
known by way of the Robertson & Powers psychology textbook--and
will undoubtedly have questions. (By the way, I have started to
brush up my calculus in order to tackle PCT in a serious way. Can
you tell me how much calculus and what other math I will need?)
I am happy to discuss my research on CSGnet, but I'm asking people
to read my article rather than a summary so that the discussion
will be adequately informed. The article distills several thousand
pages of books and articles on the psychology of militarism and
related topics (see my list of references), more than four years of
my thought about how to understand this literature from a control
systems viewpoint, and a unique and original data set that measures
self image as well as national security beliefs. When I presented
this work in progress in Durango, the CSG did not prove to be "a
great forum for discussing ideas;" on the contrary, my presentation
turned into a heresy trial, and one in which the judge had not read
the defendant's brief. I raise this with the hope that the CSG is
capable of learning from experience and would not want to repeat
something like that.
I've mailed you my article and look forward to your comments at
your convenience; thanks for your interest.
Best regards,
Brian