Life, self organization and feedback

I am currently exploring the field of feedback. What it is and how it is done in a good way. Along the way I have met with a large number of definitions and method discussions.

First I was a bit bored with all the technical descriptions of feedback such as this one:



In writing it would be expressed like this:

Feedback is a process whereby some proportion of the output signal of a system is passed (fed back) to the input. This is often used to control the dynamic behavior of the system. Examples of feedback can be found in most complex systems, such as engineering, architecture, economics, thermodynamics, and biology.

A really interesting discovery is that feedback in engineering (such as a video feedback loop)renders fractal patterns very similar to fractal patterns in biology.

Feedback is at the core of all dynamic systems, that is systems that can deal with both change and growth. I have been very inspired by the work of Margaret Wheatley and her study of life and living systems as an ideal for how people can organize.

I have not been able to express the link between life and feedback but when I saw the fractal patterns on the videos that were generated through feedback loops, and recognized them from the fractals in nature (and Meg Wheatleys books)I felt I was on to something. Eventually, after reading a bunch of wikipedia entries I found a cybernetic definition of life focusing on feedback.

A definition of life (a living individual) in cybernetic terms is proposed. In this formulation, life (a living individual) is defined as a network of inferior negative feedbacks (regulatory mechanisms) subordinated to (being at service of) a superior positive feedback (potential of expansion).

and eventually I was spot on...

Leary argues that feedback (i.e., self-reference) in cybernetic organization leads to "fractal forms." What is a fractal form? The term "fractal" (coined by chaos mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot) is used to describe "a shape whose details resemble the whole thing.

This link between Life, living systems, self organization and feedback is a great discovery for me which I intend to explore further.