It's the same mindset writing for humans, for instance the operating scenario of a model railroad. If one wants a final result where the tasks are done and the wagons placed where they go, one finds the instructions get very specific and voluminous in order for that end state to be achieved.
I use that example as its on my mind at the moment, but it takes no time before that stream of defining a current state, defining a desired end-state, defining how one desires the transition to occur, initiating the action, evaluating the result compared to the desired end-state, modify and repeat until the result matches the desired end state within some acceptable uncertainty, looks very very familiar.
Same with the real thing; orders, timetables, block systems, et al. That leads us to the notion that a transport system is arguably a single-purpose computer.
The conundrum isn't unique to computers, nor is the theory. Before any "system" performs a task, the parameters for that action must be defined, computer or no.
Even such a simple operation as marching soldiers is an exercise in defining parameters before issuing a command of execution; "Company....By the centre...slow....March" defines who, how, before the actual command "March" for example. A manual of arms, a railway rule-book, a programming language, all define parameters and non-ambiguous methodology.
I must say I don't see how computers are really a different world than any other control theory problem, though I might be a bit thick on that. I also took Basic programming in college and used the things in my engineering profession during that period of runaway technical development.
Once I understood that my mental block was not with the control theory (for there was nothing new and that is the part of your thesis I don't buy into) but with the perverseness of some of the methodologies to achieve control, it made sense. I don't buy into the notion that somehow controlling a computer is unique; different than controlling any other system, including a human.
Message Thread
« Back to index