Comment - feedback loops Re: Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection
Now I have finished the book, and I say again - good job! Laying down this concept in such a systematic understandable way is so crucial nowadays. I am already recommending it whenever I can.
Amazon has my positive review.
I thought I would comment on one point in the book in case it is a mistake and so you all might find it useful, although it may be a minor point.
It is the use of the terms "positive feedback" and "negative feedback". From what is described in the book, and shown on the diagram, seems to me is what we would call a positive feedback loop rather than negative, as stated.
Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection said:
It seems that when a large enough number of people exhibit high levels of ignorance and false beliefs, cosmic turmoil soon follows; and if you study history long enough, you’ll see the pattern emerge again and again and again. A negative feedback loop may develop at this point (bottom right of the diagram). When natural catastrophes increase to the point that people finally realize something is ‘up’, it also dawns on them that their leaders are unable to provide for their safety and so they turn against them. Social unrest grows and the elites turn to increasingly repressive measures of violence and control, which, in turn, increase the cosmic ‘reaction’, which further fuels the people’s anxiety and urge to revolt.
Wikipedia said:
Negative feedback occurs when the result of a process influences the operation of the process itself in such a way as to reduce changes
In contrast, positive feedback is feedback in which the system responds so as to increase the magnitude of any particular perturbation, resulting in amplification of the original signal instead of stabilization. Any system in which there is positive feedback together with a gain greater than one will result in a runaway situation. Both positive and negative feedbacks require a feedback loop to operate.
So in the example described in the book, the perturbation that is occurring is natural catastrophes (input signal) are being applied to the society (the system) . The system, society, reacts to the input signal by turning against the elites, who in turn increase suppression and suffering which further raises the magnitude of the input (catastrophes). If the feedback loop had instead reduced the suppression, and therefore the input signal (catastrophes) then this would have been a negative feedback loop.
One way I was taught to remember the difference between the two was the analogy of driving a car and releasing the driver's seat so it can slide back and forth freely, and then observe the result of two kinds of input signals: acceleration or braking.
In the case of acceleration, the more one steps on the accelerator, the more the seat moves backwards and the less the driver's foot can press down, in effect reducing the magnitude of the input signal, acceleration. This is negative feedback.
However in the case of braking, the driver's seat moves forward increasing the pressure on the brake pedal, causing more braking, and therefore the seat moves forward even more, continually adding to the input so that braking increases all the time. This is positive feedback.
FWIW,
_Breton_
