What the gyros do

[jporter]

Bob politely enlightens:

>If you will recall, the V-2 was launched straight up, like all "ballistic"
>missiles. It was steered during the period before brenschluss. The gyros
>provided inertial reference against which the radio steering telemetry was
>differentiated. The resulting signal adjusted steering vanes to control
>flight direction. Modern ICBM's use steering rockets to the same effect
>(steering rockets are not affected by variations in atmospheric density and
>vanes are). Without the gyros and the steering telemetry, the V-2 would have
>flown about 35-40 miles straight up, flipped over, and come down on the
>launcher.
>
>                                                Bob N.

Hmm, so that's why John Maynard Smith was mystified by the gyro connected
to the fuel supply. His experience was to think of a gyro in the familiar
context of  guidance systems, as in steering systems (kubernetes), part of
the feedback loop of a self-correcting process,  as in all adaptive
processes, including life forms. Again, his qoute:

        I seem to remember that the V2 rocket had a gyroscope
        puzzlingly connected to the fuel supply to the motors; surely,
        one would think, it should be connected to the guidance system.
        I leave it as an exercise to any readers who fancy themselves as
        reverse engineers to work out why, if my memory is correct, it was
        connected to the fuel supply.

But the fuel linked gyro of the V2 had a special purpose. It did not
participate in a feedback loop. There was no feedback. Information flowed
only one way: from the special gyro to the motor's alcohol feed- "the time
to stop is...now" It was a death gyro. There was no steering after it has
offered its single output. The double integration of acceleration provided
information which spelled death; the rocket's death and the death of the
target, determined precisely at the time of cut off.

It's probably no accident that Maynard Smith, one of Darwinism's best
interpreters, chose the exact same piece of engineering to exemplify a
method of understanding the products of natural selection, that Pynchon
chose for a central role in GR. It was a special piece of engineering
playing a single unique role in a very special, evolving technology.

Other artifacts, e.g., the encryption device, Ultra, could have been used
to demonstrate the explanatory power of reverse engineering. But Smith
chose the death gyro, which he first judged by its appearance to be part of
the guidance system. Only by applying reverse engineering was he able to
discern that, inspite of appearances, it was not amenable to feeback.

 Natural Selection is completely blind. There are no appeals, no feedback.
Structures, organisms or even species once selected for- solely by their
own abilities to exist- have no influence, can curry no special favors for
the next round. The process cannot be rigged. No amount of convolutions or
involutions, no flowers or box of sweats, no amount of wailings or nashings
of teeth, if you will, will earn special dispensation, or otherwise change
the immutable fundamental laws which allowed the structure its being in the
first place. The process is as deaf as it is blind. The gyro neither guides
nor steers. It simply terminates according to its program, without regard
for the consequences.

But what then of von Braun's "quote" which opens GR?

        Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation.
        Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me
        strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual exisitence
        after death.

I have always heard these words as sad, but was not sure why. If there was
someone who was familiar with the special gyro it was von Braun. It sounds
like he is trying to be comforting, reassuring, as if he has already
realized something that the poor reader has not yet figured out. I suppose
I could be paranoid and believe he has inside information. But no, I think
he is just wise to the fact that the Special Gyro has already sent its
trickle of current to the fuel line.

Let the reading begin,

Jody