Chaotic Control and Cotton Candy
What is control?
A way of preventing chaos you say...a way to make sure everything runs like its supposed to...a way to ensure that mistakes get corrected immediately and everything runs smooth...its the lubrication, and the process which is lubricated...hmmm....If you had thought any of the above, control probably plays a large influence in your life because whatever you thought is correct. And...now you might be thinking what the hell i am getting at...i promise the patient readers some Cotton Candy at the end. ;)
I assume all of you would have a little background on how a controlled system works...don't worry if you are not an engineer or a scientist or even remotely related to a "still a virgin at 30, never been kissed, my G4 is my best friend" geek. Its not too hard...ok, here we go.
What lends the element of control in a control system? Its the knowledge of how the process works which enables us to make decisions on how to adapt it or control it. There is a very intuitive term to explain this...Feedback. For example, a voltmeter in a circuit in parallel measures the voltage which is to be controlled. A less geekier example...a driver sees the road ahead to follow it.
But there is a problem with this...if a process has enough intelligence to control itself without any external means, then its probably fulfilling its purpose to the fullest extent. Have you ever seen someone hold the steering wheel absolutely still in a straight line? But when something external gets tacked onto it like our Voltmeter, it loses its original fullness. A voltmeter actually introduces a small impedance into the circuit...the process might seem to be more controlled...but its not 100% as envisioned anymore...the actual process which you need to control gives results which are only 99.999999% correct maybe....
Sensors...both the geeky and the non geeky versions...thus introduce disturbances in the system. And how do we handle it? We calibrate. Calibration is essentially fooling ourselves into believing the near perfect process in front of your eyes as the most desirable outcome you could have expected and you manipulate your perceptions to conform to it. Maybe, when the original Harley was made, the engine was soooo noisy and clangy that Mr.Davidson would have been appalled by it...but of course combined with some clever marketing and some associated hypnosis, viola...calibration and history being assembled!!! The Harley does sound good doesn't it... :D Ahem...calibration sets in motion, without us being aware of them, a series of mini imperfections which will soon magnify itself and go out of proportion with us blissfully ignorant of them all. The classic Bush-Iraq screw-up comes to mind...
Now where does chaos come into the picture? Well, once human beings are satisfied they have something under control, we tend to forget about it. Information gets lost with time...and one fine day, no one will bloody know how the world goes around or forget that there is no difference between a Bush and a monkey (apes are too intelligent) and vote the Republicans back into power again...knowledge unfortunately has a definite scope and focus...which is what makes us human and not Boooooooooy genius Dexter sitting in his laboratory where anything can be created out of thin air or a cartoonists imagination... ;) I think DeeDee is too girly...anywaaaaay...
Entropy...i like this word a lot. Once the perfect system is in place, its cool...99.9% conformance. But to arrive at this just about holy grail, one needs to jump across many trenches and crevices with hungry alligators waiting for their aperitifs...one has to lose many good men in the process...one has to make love to the tastelessly fat and insanely ugly daughter of a tribal chief as part of a rather shady voodoo ritual to cleanse the bat-poo aura...just to replace your lost men with them damn damn coolly tattooed natives...and unfortunately for you, no condomats around. Essentially, trial and error and modification and change. Someone should install those damn condomats...we can do without bat-poo in this world...and not to mention fat ugly daughters of cheftians. I blame Robin for this...is he gay by the way? We shall never know until the next Batman movie comes out...
Anyway, the overall sum of initial disturbances is greater than the relative calm of later control. Entropy is the change thats spiraling us downwards...so, my dear civilians, as you see...control...or at least an attempt at it...is better left to the geeks...you go out and live your life. You don't want control to lead you to chaos...it will only delay the inevitable...instead, simply let go.
A way of preventing chaos you say...a way to make sure everything runs like its supposed to...a way to ensure that mistakes get corrected immediately and everything runs smooth...its the lubrication, and the process which is lubricated...hmmm....If you had thought any of the above, control probably plays a large influence in your life because whatever you thought is correct. And...now you might be thinking what the hell i am getting at...i promise the patient readers some Cotton Candy at the end. ;)I assume all of you would have a little background on how a controlled system works...don't worry if you are not an engineer or a scientist or even remotely related to a "still a virgin at 30, never been kissed, my G4 is my best friend" geek. Its not too hard...ok, here we go.
What lends the element of control in a control system? Its the knowledge of how the process works which enables us to make decisions on how to adapt it or control it. There is a very intuitive term to explain this...Feedback. For example, a voltmeter in a circuit in parallel measures the voltage which is to be controlled. A less geekier example...a driver sees the road ahead to follow it.
But there is a problem with this...if a process has enough intelligence to control itself without any external means, then its probably fulfilling its purpose to the fullest extent. Have you ever seen someone hold the steering wheel absolutely still in a straight line? But when something external gets tacked onto it like our Voltmeter, it loses its original fullness. A voltmeter actually introduces a small impedance into the circuit...the process might seem to be more controlled...but its not 100% as envisioned anymore...the actual process which you need to control gives results which are only 99.999999% correct maybe....
Sensors...both the geeky and the non geeky versions...thus introduce disturbances in the system. And how do we handle it? We calibrate. Calibration is essentially fooling ourselves into believing the near perfect process in front of your eyes as the most desirable outcome you could have expected and you manipulate your perceptions to conform to it. Maybe, when the original Harley was made, the engine was soooo noisy and clangy that Mr.Davidson would have been appalled by it...but of course combined with some clever marketing and some associated hypnosis, viola...calibration and history being assembled!!! The Harley does sound good doesn't it... :D Ahem...calibration sets in motion, without us being aware of them, a series of mini imperfections which will soon magnify itself and go out of proportion with us blissfully ignorant of them all. The classic Bush-Iraq screw-up comes to mind...
Now where does chaos come into the picture? Well, once human beings are satisfied they have something under control, we tend to forget about it. Information gets lost with time...and one fine day, no one will bloody know how the world goes around or forget that there is no difference between a Bush and a monkey (apes are too intelligent) and vote the Republicans back into power again...knowledge unfortunately has a definite scope and focus...which is what makes us human and not Boooooooooy genius Dexter sitting in his laboratory where anything can be created out of thin air or a cartoonists imagination... ;) I think DeeDee is too girly...anywaaaaay...
Entropy...i like this word a lot. Once the perfect system is in place, its cool...99.9% conformance. But to arrive at this just about holy grail, one needs to jump across many trenches and crevices with hungry alligators waiting for their aperitifs...one has to lose many good men in the process...one has to make love to the tastelessly fat and insanely ugly daughter of a tribal chief as part of a rather shady voodoo ritual to cleanse the bat-poo aura...just to replace your lost men with them damn damn coolly tattooed natives...and unfortunately for you, no condomats around. Essentially, trial and error and modification and change. Someone should install those damn condomats...we can do without bat-poo in this world...and not to mention fat ugly daughters of cheftians. I blame Robin for this...is he gay by the way? We shall never know until the next Batman movie comes out...
Anyway, the overall sum of initial disturbances is greater than the relative calm of later control. Entropy is the change thats spiraling us downwards...so, my dear civilians, as you see...control...or at least an attempt at it...is better left to the geeks...you go out and live your life. You don't want control to lead you to chaos...it will only delay the inevitable...instead, simply let go.
Chaos is lovely in its flavour...especially when living a dream staring at a Yellow Cotton Candy Tree with fresh green leaves below during a late and lovely autmn evening...
posted by Maharaj at 11/15/2006 06:14:00 PM
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