Interactions - January/February 2009

Cloud Formation Evaporation + Condensation

Ocean

Rain Clouds

Precipitation

Snow

Lake

Ground

• Water cycle

second system measures the effect of the first system on the environment and adjusts the first system’s goal according to how well its own second-order goal is being met. The second system sets the goal of the first, based on external action. We may call this learning—modification of goals based on the effect of actions. Learning systems are also called second-order systems.

Some learning systems nest multiple self-regulating systems at the first level. In pursuing its own goal, the second-order system may choose which

first-order systems to activate. As the second-order system pursues its goal and tests options, it learns how its actions affect the environment. “Learning” means knowing which first-order systems can counter which disturbances by remembering those that succeeded in the past.

A second-order system may in turn be nested within another self-regulating system. This process may continue for additional levels. For convenience, the term “second-order system” sometimes refers to any higher-order system, regardless of the number of levels, because from the perspective of the higher system, the lower systems are treated as if they were simply first-order systems. However, Douglas Englebart and John Rheinfrank have suggested that learning, at least within organizations, may require three levels of feedback:

• basic processes, which are regulated by first-order loops

• processes for improving the regulation of basic processes

• processes for identifying and sharing processes for improving the regulation of basic processes

Of course, division of dynamic systems into three types is arbitrary. We might make finer distinctions. Artist-researcher Douglas Edric Stanley

[ 10] Debatty, R. “Interview with Douglas Edric Stanley.” Weblog. We Make Money Not Art. 5 June 2006. <http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/ archives/2006/06/can- you-tell-us.php>