Captain Benchmark's Small Press
This collection of the writings of William T. Powers is the second volume in the Living Control Systems series, in which the formal theory of Perceptual Control Theory (PCT) evolves. In the first article in a series for BYTE magazine, June, 1979, Powers wrote:"A scientific revolution is just around the corner, and anyone with a personal computer can participate in it.... The particular subject matter is human nature and in a broader scope, the nature of all living systems. some ancient and throughly accepted principles are going to be overturned, and the whole direction of scientific investigation of life processes will change."--The Nature of Robots: Part I: Defining Behavior
The revolution is now. A growing number of serious scientists are paying attention at last to this brilliant theoretician. Read this book in anticipation of the publication of the third in this series, Making Sense of Behavior, scheduled for 1st quarter, 1998.
Contents
Some Implications of Feedback Theory Concerning Behavior
The Wiener Feedback Model--A Strategic Error
Emotion
An Experiment with Levels
The Illusion of Control
Control Theory for Sociology
CT Psychology and Social Organizations
A Bucket of Beans
Deriving Closed-Loop transfer Functions for a Behavioral Model, and Vice Versa
Learning and Evolution
An Agenda for the Control Theory Group
Control Theory, Constructivism, and Autopoiesis
Control Theory: The Road to Utopia
On Violence and Aggression
The Good, the True, and the Real
A Manifesto for Control Theorists
After Galileo
The Epistemology of the Control System Model of Behavior
The Fallacy of Behaviorism
Human Nature from the Standpoint of Control Theory
Standing at the Crossroads
The X-Phenomenon
Published Works on Living Control Systems, 1989-1991 (Bibliography).