Control Theory and its Underpinning

Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation).  In the last week of March 2026, I shared an excerpt titled ‘Thought, Perception and The Hidden Dimension’, from the book – ‘The Hidden Dimension’ by Edward T. Hall. The central theme of the book is social and personal space and man’s (Human being) perception of it.It highlighted that, Communication constitutes the core of culture and indeed life itself and language, is more than just a medium for expressing thought. It is, in fact, a major element in the formation of thought. And finally, Man has elaborated his extensions to such a degree that we are apt to forget that this humanness is rooted in his animal nature. Now, SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation) to the ones paying heed, is where we try to draw your attention to things that matter and the importance of your attention, because, ‘Our life’s experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to’. Attention: is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. Once our attention is drawn to the mechanism of why and what we give attention to, it is as if a veil has been stripped off and we become freer in our action and choices. And that is our endavour. This week I bring to your attention an excerpt titled – ‘Control Theory and its Underpinning’, which is from a book titled – ‘Human Compatible – AI and the Problem of Control’ by Stuart Russell. Russell suggests that we can rebuild AI on a new foundation, according to which machines are designed to be inherently uncertain about the human preferences they are required to satisfy. Such machines would be humble, altruistic, and committed to pursue our objectives, not theirs. This new foundation would allow us to create machines that are provably deferential and provably beneficial. Control Theory and its Underpinning In the field of control theory, which designs control systems for everything from jumbo jets to insulin pumps, the job of the system is to minimize a cost function that typically measures some deviation from a desired behaviour. In the field of economics, mechanisms and policies are designed to maximize the utility of individuals, the welfare of groups, and the profit of corporations. In operations research, which solves complex logistical and manufacturing problems, a solution maximizes an unexpected sum of rewards over time. Finally, in statistics, learning algorithms are designed to minimize an expected loss function that defines the cost of making prediction errors The drawback of the above standard model was pointed out in the 1960 by Norbert Wiener, professor at MIT, in his paper titled – “Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation”, in his main point stated below: If we use, to achieve our purpose, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot interfere effectively…we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire. Excerpt from ‘Human Compatible – AI and the Problem of Control’ by Stuart Russell. I am sure that you will enjoy reading the book and find it thought provoking too; to buy your copy, you can click on the following link: https://humanjourney.us/books/human-compatible Enjoy reading it with your family, friends and near and dear one’s. Namaste.