[Avery Andrews 930130.0420]
Bill Powers (930128.2200)
I think I've taken the too-slow issue as far as I can without
learning a lot more fundamental stuff. & my sense of the subject
is that to go much further you'd probably have to do real
research on specific types of movements. But if the dumb objections
that people have to PCT can be sorted out, I think the trills &
jabs will pretty much take care of themselves. & I hope my little
piece is sufficient to deal with the ignorant forms of the too slow
argument. My perception is that the next issues to look at are
(a) pattern-generators (b) the idea that the output of the effectors
is what is controlled (as in the Jack Adams quote, and Abbs & Winstein's
`technical' definiton of feedback. This is sort of like what you call
the `objectification blunder' in QAPR, but I seem to want to call it
the `output blunder'.
I think I'll have to pass on saying more about language for the moment -
it really is a much more difficult collection of issues.
Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au
[Avery Andrews 920130.1245]
Rick Marken (930130.1200)
>I'm certainly willing to go around claiming (if it is true) that they
>don't know doggie breath about control theory. I'm one of those
>protestant type scientists that Bill just mentioned -- I've just got
>no respect for the priesthood (or the rabbinate, for that matter).
Neither do I, but in the preliminary stage where you're basically just
trying to get people to take you seriously, it's important to start with
the most plausible sounding claims, & I doubt that claiming that Rack,
Winstein al. are ignorant about feedback is one of these. It seems to
me that there are many *much* softer and juicier targets around.
For example, I found a passage by Feldman and Berkenblit
(JMB:20:369-373) where they clearly show that they think that the only
alternative to sudden reset of an equilibrium point is to compute
a series of intermediate EPs and then present them to the motor system
at a high rate.
I'd be interested in the Hypercard stack when its done - I've actually
got a Mac on my desk, but I've been ignoring it since its not networked.
This is supposed to change soon, & when it does I'll pay more attention
to it (and probably try my hand at Think C programming). I've got
a half-finished joint simulator, but its treatment of muscles isn't
any good yet, so I can't really demonstrate anything with it.
Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au