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Definitions of feedback loops
Posted by Prof. Dr. Niall Palfreyman on 2/3/2006
In Reply To:Definitions of feedback loops Posted by George Richardson on 2/2/2006
George Richardson wrote:
> ‘A feedback loop is a closed sequence of causes and effects, a closed
> path of action and information.’
This is simply pratitya samutpada - the codependent arising which is so central to Buddhist philosophy.
> Don't these suffice, so people can get on with using the notions of
> feedback and circular causality to improve thinking? I would hope the
> less time spent on defining the concept of feedback loop the better.
Defining, yes. Developing understanding, no. I agree with Richard that it is important to find the crucial medium which conveys understanding to students, and while the _conveying_ of this understanding will hopefully be possible within a few minutes, that may necessitate me spending days, or even years, developing my own understanding of this central feature of SD/ST to the extent where I'm in a position to formulate that undersanding in a comprehensible way.
> I'd really prefer a diagram to words. E.g., how would you define a
> 'dollar bill'?
Good example. However first of all a dollar bill is a lot more concrete than a feedback loop, and secondly diagrams as a communication medium are so dependent on a shared cultural context which gives the diagram meaning for the learner. No, I think I go with Linda: to communicate an abstract idea there is nothing which beats a good story. As I see it we now have three abstract ideas we'd like to communicate:
1. Feedback loop
2. Transaction
3. Endogenous thinking
I would subsume all of these under the concept of pratitya samutpada, since this is an attitude which involves both endogenous thinking (not looking "out there" for answers), and transactional, or feedback, thinking (if I'm scratching your back, then chances are you're scratching mine as well).
So I'm thinking I'd like to find a simple story - indeed a joke might be the most effective medium - which makes crystal clear to my students what is involved in truly taking pratitya samutpada on board as a a way of life. I remember in the book "City", Clifford Simak has a kaleidoscope which, when people look through it, makes them totally capable of understanding someone else's point of view. In this way the kaleidoscope's inventor changes the world (although not entirely for the better!). I really believe that finding a "kaleidoscope" for ST would have the potential to change many things in the world, provided it were virus-like enough to spread around and infect people like a good joke.
I wondered about M.C. Escher's drawing of two hands drawing each other, but that is too far removed from reality. It needs to be a narrative which is quite realistic, yet which leads to a tension which is resolved in a punchline which makes clear the fundamentally connected nature of phenomena.
A tall order, I know, but we have already made a start ...
Best wishes,
Niall.
PS: I remember a children's story about a dragon and a boy who's mother refuses to believe in it. In the face of this refusal it gets bigger. Linda?
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