CONTROL OF and CONTROL FOR
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 692 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Human sciences, Methodology or model |
Control, as a natural process, is non-volitive: it is basically the automatic result of reciprocal constraints between elements, parts or whole systems. It is obvious, for example, in co-evolution.
In contrast, human controls are mainly purposeful: the idea is to maintain a system within some specific parameters, or to the contrary, to enforce some new parameters, unfortunately sometimes arbitrary or even downright nonsustainable, in order to change the system's behavior in a way desired by the operator and supposedly advantageous.
When inside and outside contexts (alike) are not duly taken into account, the results of volitive and purposeful control can easily be erratic, negative or even wholly disastrous (Ch. FRANÇOIS, 1983).
R. ESPEJO states: “… control is not a unilateral enforcement of criteria of performance, but rather the maintenance of a dynamic stability in the interactions among multiple viewpoints with reference to tacitly accepted, more or less flexible, criteria of performance” (1988, p.143).
A. RAPOPORT made the following somewhat controversial but quite significative comment: “… control of portions of the world become desirable not only for the purpose of exploiting the environment but also for the purpose of understanding it” (1972, p.18).