Bill Powers

Volition: a Semi-Scientific Essay

Every child wonders, sooner or later, how it is that simply wanting one’s hands, arms, legs, body, head, or eyes to move suffices to create the wanted result…. — So begins this lovely essay and overview of the fundamental issues that cry out for answers. […]

I control therefore I am therefore I control
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.  […]

Geese flying
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. […]

Bill Powers

Festschrift for William T. Powers

est·schriftPronunciation: ‘fes(t)-“shrift Etymology: German, from Fest celebration + Schrift writingDate: 1898: a volume of writings by different authors presented as a tribute or memorial, especially to a scholar Introduction The William T. Powers Festschrift is […]