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The article talks about negative feedback in the circuitry to maintain stability. Why can’t the same be achieved using positive feedback in the biological and
by hi41 7y ago
The article talks about negative feedback in the circuitry to maintain stability. Why can’t the same be achieved using positive feedback in the biological and psychological realms? Only the sign is different. In the psychological system the negative feedback back can be thought of as pain. Why can’t achieve stability through pleasure instead?
- Infernal 7y agoI believe the answer to your question is that stability is maintained by a balance of pain and pleasure. By analogy, imagine a tower with guy wires only on one side. The tower will remain upright only as long as the “right” magnitude of force comes from the “right” direction to balance the force of the wires. But stability is achieved by balanced opposing forces, such that any reasonably expected deviation (in any direction) is countered and stability is maintained.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoThe sign is the crucial part of feedback. Negative feedback is what maintains stability. The more you do something, the harder the pushback. Think of e.g. friction. Positive feedback is what makes a system go boom. Think of a chain reaction in a nuclear bomb.
- kian 7y agoJust to be clear, negative feedback is not giving 'bad feedback', it's taking an action that 'dampens' a signal as it gets outside of a zone of control to bring it back in line. Positive feedback would not be pleasure or reward, positive feedback would be something more akin to a runaway chain reaction or an avalanche, where the system takes an action that emphasizes a signal as it gets outside the zone of control.