Automatic Control Systems

Abstract

This treatise of Iberall might be classified as a speculative philosophy and as an act of faith in that he speculates that A SINGLE CONCEPT aids in the understanding of all dynamic phenomena.This concept might be titled the -a-o-a (for -atomcontinuum-atom-) concept.In this concept, nonlinear dynamic instabilities in the continuum give rise to limit cycle conditions which result in quantized aggregates (called "atoms") which come together to form the next continuum level and so on.For instance, atomic particles form a fluid mechanical continuum which eventually breaks up into turbulent vortices which are the next level of atoms.Iberall uses much space to advance the provocative hypothesis that the standard quantum mechanics could be reestablished using nonlinear limit cycle theory and need not be based upon the existence of a fundamental quantum of energy.Succeeding atomic levels are related because the stability of the intervening continuum is dependent upon "transport coefficients" which are a result of the statistical mechanics of the first atomic level.For this reviewer, the most useful parts of the book were the chapters on socio-economic phenomena even though (because ?) the -a-c-a-concept is not well developed in these chapters.Iberall is intelligent and sensitive and must be a man of incredible energy.In these sections he cites and reviews many references from anthropology, economics, and psycho-sociology.He criticizes classical economics for abandoning human need as a fundamental driving force and for insufficient attention to dynamics.He also indicates a bias for the ethological (as opposed to the cultural) view of behavior and a belief in the existence of a statistical mechanics of society.These views are so close to my own that I was barely able to remember, in my excitement, that the coincidence of two naive views should not be confused for the discovery of a great truth.Also, it should be remembered that a biomechanistic view of society is self-serving for those of us who wish to model society.