Bill Powers
The Dispute Over Control Theory
Comparing behaviorism, cognitive psych and PCT.
Misapprehensions and misstatements. […]
Month: April 2022
Bill Powers
An Introduction to Perceptual Control Theory— Standing at the Crossroads
William T. Powers Many people have some sense of what control is about, but very few understand clearly how control works and even fewer (including control engineers) understand clearly what a control systems controls: Not […]
Bill Powers
Ten Minutes – An Introduction to PCT
An effective introductory summary of what PCT is all about, by Bill Powers […]
News
Development of this IAPCT site
Eva de Hullu and Matias Salgado have been working on this IAPCT website. Its purpose is to present PCT to the world, to connect people and ideas around Perceptual Control Theory and to provide a […]
Introduction
Once around the loop
Elements of the control loop have been labeled slightly different by different people at different times and for different purposes, whether for a very plain explanation or for more mathematical treatment of the physical functions. […]
Introduction
PCT in 11 steps
Control is a process of acting on the world we perceive to make it the way we want it to be, and to keep it that way. Examples of control: standing upright; walking; steering a car; scrambling eggs; scratching an itch; knitting socks; singing a tune. Extruding a pseudopod to absorb a nanospeck of food (all organisms control, not only human beings). The smallest organisms control by biochemical means, bigger ones by means of a nervous system. […]