Making Sense of Behavior – The Meaning of Control – Wllllam T. Powers

“Here, finally, is a conceptual model of a human that acts like a human.” — Sociology Professor Kent McClelland, Ph.D., Grinnell College

“The great thing a researcher can do with Perceptual Control Theory…is to return to the fundamental faith of science.” — Philip J. Runkel, Professor Emeritus, Education and Psychology, University of Oregon

Mr. Powers’ interest in control theory began when he was a junior medical physicist at the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital in Chicago during the early 1950s. Since then he has carried on dual careers; an official one as a designer of electronic systems for science, medicine, and commerce, and an unofficial one as an explorer of the organization of living systems.

Now retired with his wife Mary in Durango, Colorado, he continues his work on living systems through a busy discussion group on the internet, through designing computer models of living control systems, and through meetings and conferences on his favorite subject.

He has published numerous articles in scientific and technical journals as well as authoring four books currently in print. With Richard J. Robertson, Professor of Psychology, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, an “early adopter” of PCT, he co-edited the first introductory college text* on Perceptual Control Theory, which is being adopted by increasing number of universities in the USA and abroad.