Hard question
Here's a hard question. My bias is clear, but I'm not sure if my bias is right. The question is worth some thinking and experimentation.

Before the digital switchover in 1970, balances and bridges were VITAL in science, both at the lab level and in real measurement and control systems for industrial processes and automobiles.

In the Leeds and Northrup conductivity setup, the electronic parts are balancy, and the conductivity cell itself is balancy. Every aspect of the system has two sides that intrinsically balance out unwanted variables, leaving only the wanted variable open to control and examination. Negative feedback is INTRINSIC and continuous and unavoidable. There aren't any explicit or named feedback loops.

= = = = =

Question: Does this also apply to human systems like cities and organizations and businesses?

Leadership is a special talent. You can't just let the workers or citizens run everything without some degree of leadership. Pure democracy fails. One person must have solid authority to make instant decisions that will be instantly obeyed without months of feuding and compromise. Councils must have the power to eject** the leader if he leads badly, but the ejection needs to be slow and careful.

Here's where the balance comes in: The best leaders come from the people or workers, and have been through the same experiences as ordinary people. The leader has decision skills, training in the ways of management, and perhaps special charisma to make his commands easier to obey. He's on the opposite side of the conductivity cell, but he is immersed in the same fluid at the same temperature and pressure. He knows what can be done, and knows how far and fast the fluid can be pushed before it boils or overflows.

Unbalanced and non-empathetic leaders fail. They must use extreme force to gain compliance with hyperlunatic GENOCIDAL orders like lockdowns and muzzles. If they don't use enough force they will be overthrown by even worse leaders. If they do use extreme force, sooner or later the armies and bureaucrats (who have to face the people directly) get tired of the conflict and switch from helping to obstructing.

Since the digital switchover around 1970, science and control systems no longer use balances and bridges, and no longer use any form of negative feedback. Feedback DOES NOT EXIST AND CANNOT EXIST in software. A digital computer is always top-down one-way control, and people who grow up with computers get accustomed to this style of thinking. They don't understand the basics of Constants and Variables.

** Later counter-bias thought on ejection: Sharia got it right. If you want a leader who isn't a demonic psychopathic power addict, the leader must be given lots of pleasure and luxury, and must look forward to a guaranteed early retirement with even more luxury. Skeletal ascetics, burning with rigid ideological faith, ready to die for theory or theology, are the cruelest leaders. Golden Parachutes assure easy removal of an unsatisfactory leader. When the choice is between staying in power vs being arrested, any rational person will stay in power.

Labels: Constants and Variables, Equipoise, Natural law = Sharia law

  ¶ 7:11 AM