On Feedback (1980-1989)

"Effect spreads its 'tentacles' not only forwards (as a new cause giving rise to a new effect) but also backwards, to the cause which gave rise to it, thus modifying, exhausting or intensifying its force. This interaction of cause and effect is known as the principle of feedback. It operates everywhere, particularly in all self-organising systems where perception, storing, processing and use of information take place, as for example, in the organism, in a cybernetic device, and in society. The stability, control and progress of a system are inconceivable without feedback." (Alexander Spirkin, "Dialectical Materialism", 1983)

"The autonomy of living systems is characterized by closed, recursive organization. [...] A system's highest order of recursion or feedback process defines, generates, and maintains the autonomy of a system. The range of deviation this feedback seeks to control concerns the organization of the whole system itself. If the system should move beyond the limits of its own range of organization it would cease to be a system. Thus, autonomy refers to the maintenance of a systems wholeness. In biology, it becomes a definition of what maintains the variable called living." (Bradford P Keeney, "Aesthetics of Change", 1983)

"Ultimately, uncontrolled escalation destroys a system. However, change in the direction of learning, adaptation, and evolution arises from the control of control, rather than unchecked change per se. In general, for the survival and co-evolution of any ecology of systems, feedback processes must be embodied by a recursive hierarchy of control circuits." (Bradford P Keeney, "Aesthetics of Change", 1983)

"What is sometimes called 'positive feedback' or 'amplified deviation' is therefore a partial arc or sequence of a more encompassing negative feedback process. The appearance of escalating runaways in systems is a consequence of the frame of reference an observer has punctuated. Enlarging one's frame of reference enables the 'runaway' to be seen as a variation subject to higher orders of control." (Bradford P Keeney, "Aesthetics of Change", 1983)

"Every system of whatever size must maintain its own structure and must deal with a dynamic environment, i.e., the system must strike a proper balance between stability and change. The cybernetic mechanisms for stability (i.e., homeostasis, negative feedback, autopoiesis, equifinality) and change (i.e., positive feedback, algedonodes, self-organization) are found in all viable systems." (Barry Clemson, "Cybernetics: A New Management Tool", 1984) 

"The term closed loop-learning process refers to the idea that one learns by determining what s desired and comparing what is actually taking place as measured at the process and feedback for comparison. The difference between what is desired and what is taking place provides an error indication which is used to develop a signal to the process being controlled." (Harold Chestnut, 1984) 

"Negative feedback only improves the precision of goal-seeking, but does not determine it. Feedback devices are only executive mechanisms that operate during the translation of a program." (Ernst Mayr, "Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist", 1988)