The basic principle involved is what we call negative feedback, and negative feedback comes in a variety of forms. In general, he says, it works like this: this "purpose machine," which operates as if it had a conscious purpose, is equipped with a measuring device that measures the difference between the existing state of things and the "desired" state. The machine is constructed in such a way that it can run faster when the gap is larger. In this way, the machine can automatically reduce the gap. This is called negative feedback because the machine can automatically stop running when the "required" state is achieved. Watt's governor was equipped with a pair of balls, which were rotated by the power of the steam engine. The two balls are respectively arranged at the top ends of the two movably connected rod arms. As the rotational speed of the ball increases, the centrifugal force gradually counteracts the gravitational force, making the lever arm closer and closer to the horizontal. Since the lever arm is attached to a valve that supplies steam to the machine, the amount of steam supplied is gradually reduced as the lever arm approaches the horizontal. Therefore, if the machine is run too fast, the feed of steam will be reduced and the speed of the machine will be slowed down. Conversely, if the machine is running too slowly, the valve will automatically increase the amount of steam feed, and the machine will run faster. However, due to the overshoot or time delay, this kind of target machine often oscillates. To compensate for this defect, engineers always try to add some kind of device to reduce the amplitude of this oscillation. The "desired" state of a Watt governor is a certain rotational speed. Obviously, the machine itself is not consciously required to achieve this speed. The so-called "purpose" of a machine is simply that it tends to return to that state. Modern purpose machines have taken basic principles such as negative feedback and expanded them to perform much more complex "lifelike" motions. For example, the missile seems to be able to actively search for the target and track it after it is within range, and at the same time, it has to take into account the various twists and turns of the target to avoid pursuit, and sometimes it can even "anticipate" these moves or "preempt" them. These details will not be discussed here. In short, he said, Narrow aisle rack , they involve all kinds of negative feedback, "feedforward," and other principles that engineers are familiar with. As far as we know, these principles are now widely applied to the motion of living bodies. It is not necessary to think of a missile as having anything approaching consciousness, but in the eyes of an ordinary person, it is hard to believe that the missile is not directly controlled by a pilot because of its apparently deliberate and purposeful movements. A common misconception is that if a machine such as a missile is designed and built by a conscious person, it must be under the direct control of a conscious person. Another variant of this misconception is that "computers can't really play chess because they only take orders from the people who operate them.". We must understand the source of this misconception, because it affects our understanding of what it means to say that genes "control" behavior. Chess played by a computer is a very telling example, so I want to talk about it briefly. Computer chess today does not reach the level of a grandmaster, but it is comparable to a good amateur chess player. It is more accurate to say that the program of the computer is comparable to that of a good amateur chess player, because the program itself is not critical of which specific computer is used to perform its skills. So what is the programmer's task? First, he certainly doesn't operate the computer all the time like a puppeteer. This is cheating. He writes the program, puts it into the computer, and the computer operates independently: no one intervenes. In addition to allowing his opponent to push one of his shots into the machine. Did the programmer anticipate all the possible moves and compile a long list of the best moves for each situation? Of course not. Because in a chess game, there are as many possible moves as the sands of the Ganges River, even at the end of the world, a complete list can not be compiled. It is also for the same reason that it is impossible to program a computer so that it can play all possible chess moves and all possible responses in advance in order to find a strategy to defeat the enemy. There are more different chess games than there are atoms in the Milky Way. These are just trivial problems that illustrate the difficulty of programming a chess-playing computer, which is in fact an extremely difficult problem to solve. It is not surprising that even the most elaborate programs are no match for chess grandmasters. The programmer's role is in fact similar to that of a father instructing his son how to play chess. He tells the computer the outline of the main steps, not the various steps that apply to every opening. Instead of saying literally in the language we use every day, "The image goes diagonal," he said in the language of mathematics, "The new coordinates of the image come from the old coordinates, and the procedure is to add the same constant to the old coordinates X and the old coordinates y, but their symbols need not be the same." In fact, the language used is certainly more concise. He could then program some "advice" using the same mathematical or logical language to the effect that, in our everyday language, would be "Don't expose your king to the enemy," or some practical trick such as "using one horse for two purposes" and attacking the other two at the same time. These specific moves are thought-provoking, but they are too far from the point. The important thing is that after the computer has made its first move, it needs to operate independently, and its owner cannot be expected to give any more advice. All a programmer can do is to deploy the computer as best he can in advance and strike the right balance between providing specific knowledge and strategic and tactical tips. omracking.com