[Hans Blom, 950912c]
(Martin Taylor 950907 11:10)
Yesterday I agreed with Bill. Hans' present posting perhaps
makes his position clearer. Let me see if I can reword without
altering the intention, because if I understand him, both Hans
and Bill are correct, but in different conceptual worlds.
Start with Bill. I believe Bill is imagining a world such as we
are all accustomed to ...
Exactly. A world in which the controller has already fully
adapted to or was created specifically for its environment.
I believe Hans to be contemplating a different, mathematical
world, in which the number of possible transfer functions is
aleph-2. Transfer functions may change magnitude and direction
at all points in space and time. Time or space derivatives may
not exist.
I was considering nothing quite so perverse as this (but thanks
for the idea!). What I had in mind is more analogous to dropping
an earthly organism on a random -- a priori unknown -- foreign
planet and see whether the organism survives. The laws of nature
are, supposedly, identical, but local properties such as gravity,
temperature, atmospheric gas composition etc. (in systems terms:
amplitude and phase of the transfer function of the "world") may
differ tremendously. So your comment
If our world were Hans' world, we could not have evolved,
because no control system could have developed to a point where
the dynamics could have been modelled.
is not quite correct. We are "we" because we are on "our" world,
nicely fitting our particular niche. On a different world "we"
would not be "we". But on that different world, organisms MIGHT
exist. But very different ones, probably.
Greetings,
Hans