1. A control network for controlling a plant having plant control inputs for receiving plant control variables and desired plant outputs, the plant outputs being a function of the plant control variables and external influences on the plant, comprising: a control network input for receiving as network inputs the current plant control variables and desired plant outputs; a control network output for outputting predicted plant control variables necessary to achieve the desired plant outputs; a processing system for processing the received plant control variables through an inverse representation of the plant that represents the dependencies of the plant output on the plant control variables parameterized by an estimation of the external influences to provide the predicted plant control variables to achieve the desired plant outputs; and an interface device for inputting the predicted plant control variables that are output by said control network output to the plant as plant control variables to achieve the desired plant outputs.