[From Bill Powers (930509.1800 MDT)]
Bob Clark (930509) --
Your remarks on time are interesting. What if we have no time
sensor, but simply experience time in terms of one kind of event
relative to another? To speak of slow and fast time is to posit a
second dimension of (uniform) time in terms of which a variable
rate of passage of time can be measured. This was pointed out by
J. W. Dunne in _An experiment with time_.
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In any situation where the Reference Level is essentially
constant, the system can be described in S-R terms.
Only if you mistake disturbances for stimuli. That, in fact, is
how I explain S-R theory: as an illusion resulting from noticing
the relationship between disturbances and actions, but missing
the controlled quantity (the quantity actually being sensed) and
thus assuming that the cause of the disturbance must have been
sensed.
Thus I may observe that opening a window is a stimulus that
causes you to put on a sweater. Of course you may not have
noticed the opening of the window at all, and even if you had,
you would not put on a sweater just for that reason. You put on a
sweater because of an effect on a controlled quantity: the
temperature of your skin. You may do this even without knowing
why you feel too cold. You don't need to know that in order to do
something about it.
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Best,
Bill P.