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Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 08:28:54 -0600
From:         "William T. Powers" <POWERS_W%FLC@VAXF.COLORADO.EDU>
Subject:      Clarifying clarification

[From Bill Powers (920908.0730)]

Greg Williams (92090[8]) --

>Rubber-banding-type control of another involves disturbing a variable
>which you know to be controlled by another so they will "correct" for
>your disturbance by performing actions which you want to see.

Agree.

In rubber-banding, control works best when the controlee doesn't pay
attention to the actions you want to see.

Yes.

>Manipulation can be aided by the manipulee having a high gain for,
and >paying close attention to, the actions you want to see.

Disagree. Control is never done by paying attention to actions, unless
it's specifically the perception of the action that you're controlling
(as in dancing). And then, of course, the means of creating that
perceived action are varied automatically (muscle tensions).

Here's what I think you are talking about:

                                  Ref Sig
                                     |
                  p = f(v1,v2) ---->(C)--->
                              |            |
                              |            |
                             (I)          (O)
MARK                        / |            |
                          /   |      Mark's action
                        /     |            |
                     v2       v1 <---------
 manipulator's report|                     |
                      ---- manipulator<---
                                |
                        ref lev for other's action

v1 is a controlled perception, and v2 an uncontrolled one (but not a
don't-care perception). v1 is called controlled because the Mark's
action really consists of setting a reference level for v1 which lower
systems successfully meet.

This diagram shows what happens when the Mark is controlling a
perception that depends on several lower-order or external variables,
only one of which (v1) is reliably affected by the action. If the
manipulator can get the Mark to accept the manipulator's description
of v2, instead of the Mark perceiving v2 directly, the manipulator can
misrepresent the state of the environment and thus gain control of the
Mark's action.

Hey, Olson, don't take this personally.

In the con game this happens when the wallet (v1) containing the valid
bond or Treasury note or whatever (v2) is switched for the similarly-
wrapped one containing newspaper. The Mark has control only of the
wallet (v1), but is shown by the con man that the wallet contains
something valuable (v2). The Mark doesn't want to perceive the wallet
alone (v1) but the  wallet with something valuable in it, which is the
perception p = f(v1,v2).

The action that gets the wallet and v2 into possession of the Mark is
to hand over cash to the con man. This does get the wallet into the
possession of the Mark. The Mark perceives this, however, as getting a
wallet with something valuable in it. The con man sees to it that the
Mark gets the wallet, but without the something valuable in it.

This is the same con game played by advertisers; when you hand over
your money, you get the flashy car, but the nice pretty girl isn't in
it any more and never will be. What you get is a dumb promiscuous
broad who can be conned into thinking that a flashy car contains a
terrific guy, and when she hands over the price she will give you a
baby you didn't particularly want, or AIDS. And when she looks in her
package all she will find in it is plain old you. Great design for a
relationship.

I agree with you that lots of this kind of deception goes on. What's
good about it?

The only way for the Mark to stop being conned is to make sure it's
his own perception of v2 that's in the package. This goes whether he
is buying wallets from strangers, cars from television advertisers,
religions from books, or educations from experts. Or theories from
anybody.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Best,


Bill P.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU