Walt Warnick wrote: >... the business cycle behaves strikingly like an automatic control >system that has a positive feedback loop and damping. ... >The parallel goes further. ... a stable automatic control system involving >continuous feedback can become unstable if that same feedback is, instead, >sampled.
Control theory is an application of single-agent decision theory, and since economics is basically multi-agent decision theory, I'd say control theory is closer to economics than to physics. Of course one often needs to know some details of the physics of the situation one is controlling, but usually control problems are dominated by decision theory issues, not physics issues. Robin Hanson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444 703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
