Richard, is this correct? Are human-engineered airplanes complex in the
sense you mean?
Generally speaking, no, not in a substantial enough way.
Which means that there is a certain amount of unpredictability in some
details, and there are empirical factors that you need to use (tables of
lift coefficients, etc.), but beyond these empirical factors there is
little impact of the complexity.
Richard, you're obviously not familiar with high-speed aerodynamics. There
is not "a certain amount of unpredictability". It is out-and-out virtually
unconstrained chaos. There are *no* nice little tables of lift
coefficients. A human being cannot operate an F-14 by themselves. A
computer cannot operate an F-14 unless it is receiving sub-millisecond
updates because the behavior is too chaotic to predict. Yet, like
everything else in nature, this seeming chaos is the result of a relatively
small number of relatively simple rules (and a huge butterfly effect). An
F-14 in flight makes "a system in which all the components are interacting
with memory, development, nonlinearity, etc etc etc." look nearly trivial
because virtually *anything* can effect it (temperature thermoclines,
radiant heat differences because of changes in the land below, wind speed,
clouds, even the passage of migratory birds) -- yet the behavior is entirely
bounded enough for a fast reacting computer to manage it.
How is this not complex (according to your definition)?
The amount of complexity is almost trivial, compared with a system in
which all the components are interacting with memory, development,
nonlinearity, etc etc etc.
I believe that the pieces of intelligence can be uncoupled far more than
you're ever going to be able to uncouple the factors hitting an aircraft at
trans-sound speeds.
Don't forget that ALL systems are complex if you push them far enough, so
it makes no sense to ask "is system X complex?". You can only ask how
much complexity, and what role it plays in the system.
My point exactly.
-------------------------------------------
agi
Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now
RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/
Modify Your Subscription:
http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=101455710-f059c4
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
