What's up?

[From Rick Marken (2003.10.22.0815)]

Bill Powers wrote:

Hi, Rick --

>Any progress on the "adaptive illusion"? Economics test bed? Chinese PCT?
>Paperback B:CP?

BCP is supposed to come out this month, if Alice's health holds up.

Great.

The other stuff is still on the shelf, waiting for some inspiration to
strike. I did write to Julius Soros to see if he would have any interest in
the economics stimulation, but haven't heard back.What about the economists
at RAND? By the way, is Rand an acronym or a name?

RAND was the Research and Development branch of McDonnel-Douglas. So I think RAND
was an acronym for Research and Development but now it's really an acronym for
Research and No Development. I will ask around to see if there are any economists
here who might be interested in the test bed notion. But we'd have to get funding
even if we did it here. I think Soros was a good idea. We might also look for
foundations that might be interested in funding such a project.

I'm sort of waiting for some sort of communication from Flach. If he gets
back in touch, I might give that MOL approach a try.

I'm in communication with a fellow who is also interested in PCT but might who
might have to go up a level of two to get it. I'll try being an MOL guide with
him:

I've also been
thinking about your suggestion of doing the adaptive illusion paper for two
orders of system dynamics instead of all three.

Let's do it.

Also, reading that long thing from McRuer that you sent has been very
informative. The stick had a rather strong centering spring (two pounds
force at a 4-inch radius for a 15-degree deflection -- the total range was
+/- 15 degrees).

Could this be the reason for the apparently good performance with the 2nd order
connection? Do they report how well the subjects were controlling at each order (I
returned my copy).

I spent the last three+ weeks nursing a very sore back -- turns out that
one disc is missing, at about L3, so the vertebrae are touching at an angle
instead of being separated and parallel. No idea when that happened -- it
might have been years ago. So I have to watch the heavy lifting and do some
exercises. Unpleasant.

I am very sorry to hear that. Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks for all the info.

Best

Rick

···

--
Richard S. Marken, Ph.D.
Senior Behavioral Scientist
The RAND Corporation
PO Box 2138
1700 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
Tel: 310-393-0411 x7971
Fax: 310-451-7018
E-mail: rmarken@rand.org