Basic Feedback Loop (1/3)

On all levels, feedback manages process. Information, looping back on itself acts as part of the control mechanism that regulates activity. Within the brain, any other organ, or the whole body, for that matter, activity is regulated by feedback. The same is true of all complex systems. Feedback loops maintain homeostasis.

Feedback is a term that infers that the loop is a mechanical process with no intelligence involved. The most common example, the thermostat that controls a furnace, is as dumb as a board fence. However, even a fence requires intelligence to build it. A great deal of intelligence goes into the design of thermostats. They don't just happen out of the blue. It also takes a rudimentary intelligence to recognize the relationship between the temperature in the room and the dial on the thermostat, and set the thing.

Feedback is fundamental in biological systems. Our perception is just such a loop. In it's simplest form, a feedback loop has a receptor, that senses the environment, a control center that processes the feedback and an effector, that performs adjustments.

"When the receptor senses a stimulus, it sends information to a control center, the component that sets the range at which a variable is maintained. The control center determines an appropriate response to the stimulus."--Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis

Feedback, loops, circular channels of information, are communication between functional elements of a complex system. Whether designed by engineers or part of a biological process, feedback loops are intelligence in action. At some point in the loop, choices are made based on input, with homeostasis as a target state. Intelligent choices are made toward an intended outcome!

This same feedback diagram works for information processing in general. Whether a computer or a biological cell, the same steps are followed. Input, process and output modify matter, which is then, memory of the process.

We can see this same cycle of process repeated throughout the Natural World. For example, our perception/action cycle follows this same simple pattern. Information flows into the eye, to the brain. There it is processed and commands sent out to the hand, which interacts with the object.

We tend to focus on our part of the cycle, the eye and brain action, forgetting that we are part of a loop that includes our action or behavior in the environment. It could be said that this lapse in memory is fundamental to our current dilemma. Anytime there is information transferred, it is part of a loop. Just like Karma, that info is coming around again... to it's source.