COMMAND
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 500 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
An imperative message whose aim is to modify the behavior of the receiver.
V. TURCHIN writes: “The meaning of a command is the way it changes the state of the receiver. In the classical limiting case a command leaves the receiver no choice at all, so that the action of the receiver is uniquely determined by the command. Computer languages can serve as an illustration” (1993, p.14).
The concept of command should be stripped from its originally limitied psycho-social meaning.
On the other hand, TURCHIN also observes that in many practical cases, “the command leaves almost no choice” to the receiver (Ibid).
The sender of the command can never be sure that — due to the time lag in its transmission, as for example in a tele-piloted rocket — its general conditions of validity will remain changeless (or even that they were correctly evaluated).