W. Ross Ashby on Power
Browse 2 quotations attributed to W. Ross Ashby, catalogued under power, with dates where available.
This page displays 2 quotations attributed to W. Ross Ashby and filed under "power" in QuoteLineage. The selection is ordered by stored importance and quality scores, not citation counts. A topic label describes how an entry is catalogued; it does not establish the theme's importance in the author's work.
Attributed to W. Ross Ashby, entry #114374: "The fundamental questions in regulation and control can be answered only when we are able to consider the broader set of what it might do, when “might” is given some exact specifi…"
Attributed to W. Ross Ashby, entry #177254: "Its importance is that if R is fixed in its channel capacity, the law places an absolute limit to the amount of regulation that can be achieved by R, no matter how R is re-arrange…"
2 Quotes by W. Ross Ashby on Power
"The fundamental questions in regulation and control can be answered only when we are able to consider the broader set of what it might do, when “might” is given some exact specification."
"Its importance is that if R is fixed in its channel capacity, the law places an absolute limit to the amount of regulation that can be achieved by R, no matter how R is re-arranged internally, or how great the opportunity in T. Thus the ecologist, if his capacity as a channel is unchangeable, may be able at best only to achieve a fraction of what he would like to do. This fraction may be disposed in various ways —he may decide to control outbreaks rather than extensions, or virus infections rather than bacillary — but the quantity of control that he can exert is still bounded. So too the economist may have to decide to what aspect he shall devote his powers, and the psychotherapist may have to decide what symptoms shall be neglected and what controlled."