Threads and posts listed here offer a sampling of the issues and insight discussed among members of the Control Systems Group on the E-mail network CSGnet (or CSG-L). Some of the files hold individual posts, while other files are collections of posts in sequence on a similar subject, sometimes in heated debate. Posts are not edited, but simply selected and copied from the listserver archive.
Most of these essays and postings from CSGnet were selected in 1994 and 1995. At the time, I was focusing on PCT full time and made the effort to format email messages for what has become the CSGnet archive. I distributed a floppy disk with this collection in the form of ASCII text files at the time. These text files has been posted, such as with the title: “The Best of CSGnet” with the file name extension .html, which destroys formatting and renders ASCII figures unintelligible because a browser displays a sequence of spaces as one.
Back in 1995, file names had to conform to the DOS specification, 12345678.ABC. Here, these same file names have been spelled out, but are still short in the spirit of the original file names. For example, the original file ABNORMAL.PHY is now AbnormalPhysics.pdf. Traces of this file naming remain.
Now, printed to pdf files, the original formatted Word files are reproduced properly.
For much more, see the complete CSGnet archive, available for download here at www.pctresources.com. This archive is searchable and up-to-date.
The files available here are no substitute for reading the literature that has grown up based on Powers’s work. See www.livingcontrolsystems.com for information and a summary of literature.
Many documents contain illustrations created on the computer screen using the ASCII characters found on the keyboard. Care has been taken to insert page breaks so ASCII illustrations are displayed whole before the source Word files were printed to PDF
Short description |
Pages |
Filename |
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This web page as pdf. Listing 89 posts and threads. |
3 |
ThreadsFromCSGnet.pdf |
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Evidence of control is all around us |
2 |
AbnormalPhysics.pdf |
Powers and Petrie at AERA, 1995 |
6 |
AERA_PCT.pdf |
HPCT difference Simulation – Inverse Kinematics |
6 |
AnimationSimulation.pdf |
By Any Other Name: the word Control |
2 |
AnyOtherName.pdf |
Clever Deception Unmasked |
7 |
AprilFool.pdf |
On Autism and Belief |
10 |
Autism.pdf |
Definitions of Behavior |
3 |
BehaviorDefinition.pdf |
The Hierarchical Behavior of Perception |
12 |
BehaviorOfPerception.pdf |
PCT intro to Business Process Reengineering list |
9 |
BusProcessReengin.pdf |
Proposal: Center for the Study of Living Control Systems |
11 |
CenterProposal.pdf |
Clarity of writing and thought. Belief and knowledge |
33 |
Clarity.pdf |
Collecting data about behavioral regularities |
4 |
CollectingData.pdf |
Bad data illustrated |
6 |
Correlation.pdf |
Logical and sub-logical analysis |
2 |
CrowdLogic.pdf |
Posts on Cybernetics and Systems Theory |
54 |
Cybernetics.pdf |
Defining control. Review of literature |
15 |
DefiningControl.pdf |
Behaviorist terms. Theory, imagery, language |
5 |
DefiningTerms.pdf |
Degrees of freedom; a technical consideration |
6 |
DegreesOfFreedom.pdf |
Explanation and clinical terminology |
6 |
Depression.pdf |
Descartes' Error, An Anthropologist on Mars |
3 |
DescartesError.pdf |
Misunderstandings and distortions. See also Dispute_pct.pdf |
69 |
DevilsBibliography.pdf |
The Dispute over PCT. See also DevilsBibliography.pdf |
48 |
Dispute_PCT.pdf |
Dormitive principles: Non-explanations |
2 |
DormitivePrinciples.pdf |
Economics: Interaction of Living Control Systems |
13 |
Economics.pdf |
What PCT has to say about education |
5 |
Education.pdf |
PCT includes and explains emotion and feelings |
8 |
Emotion.pdf |
Posts about engineering, terminology, and PCT |
26 |
Engineering_PCT.pdf |
Break out of Stimulus -> Response thinking |
7 |
Epiphanies.pdf |
Action always equal and opposite disturbance |
6 |
EqualAndOpposite.pdf |
The Fable of the Radio. By Greg Williams |
3 |
FableOfRadio.pdf |
Glasser, Book review, Foreword, New View Publ. |
21 |
Glasser.pdf |
Half an hour in the life of an HPCT system |
1 |
GottaPee.pdf |
Stories, Skepticism, Belief versus Knowledge |
27 |
Gullibility.pdf |
Explanations, theories, models: harping on a theme |
21 |
HarpingTheme.pdf |
Hiawatha's poem on statistics |
6 |
Hiawatha.pdf |
Monthly introduction to CSGnet |
12 |
IntroCSGnet.pdf |
Introduction to Perceptual Control Theory |
2 |
IntroductionToPCT.pdf |
Objective modeling vs direct experience |
3 |
Knowing.pdf |
Article on neural networks |
8 |
Lobsters.pdf |
On modeling behavior using control theory |
2 |
ModelingUsingPCT.pdf |
Dormitive principles: Non-explanations |
1 |
Moliere.pdf |
Morality from an HPCT perspective |
3 |
Morality.pdf |
About responding to newcomers |
6 |
Newcomer_all.pdf |
A psychologist joins CSGnet |
111 |
Newcomer_one.pdf |
A skeptical engineer joins CSGnet. Albus |
178 |
Newcomer_two.pdf |
PCT, behavioral theories and ordinary experience |
3 |
OldIdeas_PCT.pdf |
Thread on the theme of an "open mind," |
5 |
OpenMind.pdf |
PCT and other theories |
2 |
OtherTheories.pdf |
Posts on the levels of perception |
26 |
PerceptLevels.pdf |
Philosophical musings on obviousness and PCT |
1 |
Perspectives.pdf |
The end of physics and other comments |
6 |
PhysicsEnd.pdf |
Policing PCT purity and correctness |
3 |
Policing_PCT.pdf |
Avoid making that committment to ANY belief |
3 |
PowerCurve.pdf |
A primer on PCT computer modeling |
16 |
ProgrammingPrimer.pdf |
Event and property centered explanations |
2 |
Properties.pdf |
Terminology of purposive behavior |
3 |
PurposiveTerminology.pdf |
A short comment on Ed Ford's therapy |
2 |
QualityTime.pdf |
A reasonable set of comments and questions |
8 |
Questions_PCT.pdf |
Experience, Reality, and HPCT |
4 |
Reality.pdf |
Rubber Band Demo to Real Life |
2 |
RealLife.pdf |
Control Theory vs. Reinforcement theory |
144 |
ReinforcementTheory.pdf |
Religion and belief. Belief overrides evidence |
8 |
Religion.pdf |
A Clinicians view of Reorganization |
3 |
Reorganization.pdf |
Posts on replication of experiments |
9 |
Replication.pdf |
Defining PCT research. Examples and discussion |
101 |
Research_PCT.pdf |
PCT Introduction and Resource Guide |
13 |
Resources_PCT.pdf |
Posts on responsibility |
18 |
Responsibility.pdf |
Rotten apples: solipsism; learning |
3 |
RottenApples.pdf |
Appearance of a higher power |
3 |
ScienceFiction.pdf |
Musings on science, American psychology |
5 |
ScientificPsychology.pdf |
Scientific rumor mill |
2 |
ScientificRumors.pdf |
Shocking experiments with rats. More PCT research |
34 |
ShockingExperiments.pdf |
Open loop faster and simpler |
3 |
SimplerFaster.pdf |
Skinners Mistake. Essay by Bill Powers |
6 |
SkinnersMistake.pdf |
Social control (systems) |
2 |
SocialControl.pdf |
Comparing HPCT and social organization |
3 |
SocialOrganization.pdf |
On Kent McClelland's paper about social power |
4 |
SocialPower.pdf |
Discussion of Operant conditioning. Funny! |
12 |
StarTrek.pdf |
Independent Variable - Dependent Variable |
2 |
Study_IV_DV.pdf |
Tendencies and biases |
2 |
TendenciesBiases.pdf |
The "tough sell" of PCT and social interactions |
18 |
ToughSell.pdf |
Controlled versus controlling; a tutorial |
5 |
Tutorial_PCT.pdf |
Behavior understandable - at least up to a point |
2 |
UpToAPoint.pdf |
PCT: Old knowledge with new language? |
3 |
UsesOf_PCT.pdf |
Is PCT really about violence? |
2 |
Violence_PCT.pdf |
Virtual Reality conference |
4 |
VirtualReality.pdf |
Words, meanings, computations |
4 |
VoltageDigital.pdf |
What is science? - Theory, look for evidence? |
3 |
WhatIsScience.pdf |
Words and models |
3 |
WordsModels.pdf |
