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Classification of behaviour

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        Their first classification is into 'active' behaviour, in which the object itself is the 
        source of the energy in the output, and 'non-active', or 'passive' behaviour, in which all 
        the energy in the output comes from the immediate input, or the object controls energy 
        which remains external to it. Active behaviour they further divide into 'purposeful' or 
        'goal-directed', and 'non-purposeful' or 'random'. Hence they would describe a machine as 
        'purposeful' only if it has some specific final condition towards which its activity is 
        directed, e.g., a torpedo which contains a servomechanism causing it to seek its target; 
        and they recognise that some machines, e.g., a roulette wheel, are designed to be 
        purposeless.
      
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        Purposeful behaviour is then classified into 'feedback' or 'teleological', and 
        'non-feedback' or 'non-teleological'. Feedback systems are those in which the input is 
        altered by the output in the direction necessary to reduce the discrepancy between the 
        situation so far achieved and the goal situation. Some machinery involves a continuous 
        feedback of the error in this way. The transmission of these signals requires time, so 
        that at certain frequencies the direction of the feedback is in effect reversed, and 
        results in a build-up of oscillation. This is the phenomenon which first invited the 
        comparison of the action of the nervous system in voluntary activity with that of an 
        error-controlled feedback system.
      
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        Such feedback behaviour may be further divided into 'extrapolative' or 'predictive', and 
        'non-extrapolative' or 'non-predictive'. In extrapolative behaviour the path of the target 
        is predicted, and aim taken towards its most probable future position. Such prediction may 
        be of first, second, or higher order. The original problem, in which an anti-aircraft 
        shell is fired at an aircraft, requires second order prediction, because both the path of 
        the shell and that of the aircraft have to be predicted. Perhaps human behaviour may be 
        distinguished from that of other animals by the use of higher orders of prediction.
      
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