The companion disc contains 13 colorful, amusing and educational open-source programmed demonstrations of perceptual control ol theory (PCT) at work..

Two distinghished scholars, both educators and scientists with outstanding credentials, have contributed in important ways to this work:

FIRST EDITION
BRILLIANT, FUNNY, VALUABLE

ORDER FROM AMAZON

Living Control Systems III: The Fact of Control

Bill Powers terms this elegant little book..."my last chance to persuade my peers on this planet that prior to the 1930s we human beings had an entirely wrong idea, only partly supplanted at the time of this writing, of who we are, how we are constructed, and why we do what we do. I hope to do this persuading by showing each person who reads this book a mirror in which certain commonplace phenomena of human behavior can be seen from a new angle.

The computer age has provided a tool that allows me to create a small universe which each of you can experience and act upon directly, as if for a time you can ride with me inside my brain, doing what I do, seeing the same results I see, checking my observations against your own, and-if all goes well—reaching the same conclusions I have reached.…so you can see and feel [the fact of control] for yourself, have that joyful shock of discovery, and understand it."

Dr. Bruce Abbott, Faculty, Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne, co-author of Research Design and Methods: A Process Approach (McGraw-Hill, 7th printing), has updated Powers' original demos, and designed and developed a handsome new user-cordial interface for them.

 

Dr. Richard Kennaway, a mathematician engaged in research in computer science at the school of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, UK, in the areas of programming language theory and design, virtual reality, control theory, robotics and biocomputing, developed the mathematical proofs of the models and simulations and presents them in an illustrated Appendix.

200+ text pages, including Appendix, context-oriented index, and more than 50 illustrations, many in full color.

Paperback/CD $65 USD. ISBN 978-0-9647121-8-8

PERCEPTUAL CONTROL THEORY EXPLAINED:
FIRST TIME IN PAPERBACK

Behavior: The Control of Perception2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded] introduces William T. Powers’ revolutionary theory of the behavior of living organisms (now known as Perceptual Control Theory), a robust system of ideas that has stood up to more than 30 years of rigorous testing and modeling by the scientific and academic communities. Includes glossary, bibliography, index, table of figures, both historic and contemporary commentary, and the previously omitted chapter on Emotion. First published in 1973 by Aldine deGruyter, B:CP has become integral to Life Sciences curricula all over the world. In 1973, Thomas Kuhn, legendary philosopher/educator and author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, wrote this about B:CP:

“[This manuscript] is among the most exciting I have read in some time. The problems are of vast importance, and not only to psychologists; the achieved synthesis is thoroughly original and the presentation is often convincing and almost invariably suggestive. I shall be watching with interest what happens in the directions in which Powers points.”

332 pages, illustrated, paperback, $34.95 USD ISBN 978-0-9647121-7-1

A PRIMER FOR "THE REST OF US"

Written by Bill Powers, the originator of Perceptual Control Theory and one of the founders of the Control Systems Group, this is the first book on PCT written for "the rest of us." Powers describes in a relaxed, easy-to-read style the fundamentals of this revolutionary theory of the behavior of living organisms--in particular, human beings. This book is for anyone interested in how our systems work and how people interact and why. For researchers new to PCT, a comprehensive reference points to further studies, demonstrations and applications.

In which Powers takes on Skimner's pigeons.

180 pages, paperback. $19.95 USD ISBN 978-0-964712-5-7

Perceptual Control Theory: Science & Applications
­-A Book of Readings

Edited by Dag Forssell, this Book of Readings samples the literature on Perceptual Control Theory, PCT, its scientific nature and applications. Available as a paperback as well as a free pdf download for personal use at: http://www.livingcontrolsystems.com/sampler/readings.html.

The book includes 21 papers and complete chapters from 12 books­-five by Powers, seven by his colleagues. Subjects include psychotherapy, management, emotions, baby brain development, computer simulations and tutorials, scientific revolutions, dogma in psychology, scientific method, reverse engineering, robots, cybernetics, and more.

272 pages, 8.25x11 inches, illustrated, paperback, USD 25.00 ISBN 978-0-9740155-8-3

Published by Living Control Systems Publishing