CONTROL BY ERROR
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 682 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, Methodology or model |
Referring himself to the pratical difficulties to achieve control by error, at least in some cases, W.R. ASHBY observed: “… the designer engineer may sometimes forget that there is another way to regulation. May I suggest that he would do well to bear in mind what has been found so advantageous in the biological world, and to consider whether a regulation, which is excessively difficult to design if it is controlled by error, may not be easier to design if controlled not by the error but by what gives rise to the error” (1958, p.93).
ASHBY observed that living organisms developed channels of communication with their environment to obtain “… information about disturbances before the chain of cause and effect goes so far as to cause actual error” (Ibid).