Nick, I can't answer for robots but I can answer for control systems. Basic control involves measuring a process and acting upon those measurements. Advanced control involves measuring the result in the process of varying the actions upon the process. This is done by step testing and is primarily intended to compensate for the physical degradation of the equipment being controlled (not the process). In the case of a hydro-cracking distillation tower, there are nominal settings from when the tower is new. Once the tower and the heaters begin to wear and accumulate gunk, those nominal settings are no longer nominal - thus the advanced optimization which measures all the sensors and the quality of the output while varying the actuators over a range of values. I think this meets the sense of "information about other things".
Ray Parks rcpa...@sandia.gov Consilient Heuristician Voice: 505-844-4024 ATA Department Mobile: 505-238-9359 http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax: 505-844-9641 http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:505-951-6084 On 2/5/11 12:29 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: > At what point in the complexity of a robot (or any other control system) > does it begin to seem useful to parse input into “information about the > system itself” and “information about other things”? ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
