[Martin Taylor 960131 15:00]
Bill Powers (960131.0800 MST)
Bill proposes "spontefaction" to replace the "retro" fashionability of
his previous proposal.
What is it about (pardon me) control that matters? "Spontefaction" captures
the notion of "doing" or "making" "of one's free will", which covers the
fact that control brings about in the perceptual signal the value _forced
upon it_ by the reference signal. (The control system has no free will
in the matter at all). "Retrofaction" captures the effect of
control in forcibly countering the effects of disturbances. These two
terms seem to cover complementary halves of what control does.
In the past, when I have tried to discuss "control" hierarchies from the
viewpoint that they resist disturbances, I have been criticized for ignoring
the critical fact that their job is to follow changing reference values.
When I have discussed "control" hierarchies from the viewpoint of how
reference signal variations come to be followed by perceptual signals,
I have been criticized for ignoring disturbances. So the problem of
unduly emphasizing one or the other input to a control loop is real.
Each of these words emphasizes one input at the expense of the other.
The "faction" part of the word presents no problem of meaning. It implies
"doing" or "making." (The meaning in a "political faction" may also come
from the same root--I don't know--but it's far enough from what we want
to be non-confusing, I think).
Could we devise a word using only the "fact" root, without "retro" or "sponte"?
I don't much any of the following, but they might tweak someone
to think of a better. I list in columns under the current term:
(to) contro controlling control system
enfact enfactive enfaction system
profact profactive profaction system
prostabilize prostabilizing prostabilization system (pro=on behalf of)
perfact perfactive perfaction system (connotes "perfecting")
Then there are possibilities based on "servo" as in "servo-mechanisms" which
are actually control systems as we want them to be thought of. The problem
with simply co-opting "servo" is that it carries a specific impression of
one particular kind of control system.
As I said, I don't really like any of my suggestions any more than I like
"retrofaction" or "spontefaction," but of the list I think I like best "to
perfact" = "to control", "perfaction" = "the act or structure of control",
"a perfactive system" = "a system structured as a control system."
The connotation of "bringing to perfection" somewhat tickles my fancy.
Fancy that.
Martin