Feedback

• Please feel free to send me a message me anytime on any of the supported platforms :) see [[flancian]] for more.
• [[email]] eduardo@flancia.org
• [[twitter]] https://twitter.com/flancian
  • DMs are open.
  • Update (2023): no longer my primary social presence due to the evolution of the company's policies away from openness.
• [[fediverse]] https://social.coop/@flancian
  • I believe in the huge potential of the [[fediverse]] and the [[knowledge metaverse]].
  • Also at [[merveilles]]: https://merveilles.town/flaneur
• This is feedback I've gotten in the past, thank you for this and any more like it or different!
  • [[flancia]]
    • Improve the slogans. "In Flancia there is no poverty" sounds a bit "save the world", generic, a platitude; but the idea behind Flancia is to write a plan together to at least try to "[[change the world]]"; it could communicate that. I should in general make it clearer that it's an action-based rational, creative movement.
      • Perhaps: In Flancia they [[changed the world]]?
    • "In Flancia there is no privilege" and "In Flancia there is an Agora" got better reviews.
    • I should read more on: [[postmodernism]] [[privilege]] [[ethics]] [[feminism]]
      • Let it be known that [[Peter Singer]] is my [[delegate]] for [[ethics]], together with the [[Buddha]].
      • I try to read criticisms of both to hedge :)
      • (If you have a [[delegate]] in a certain area (think of [[liquid democracy]]), it seems to me one is ethically bound to stay up to date with criticism of the delegate.)

Feedback

If stocks and flows are a system’s core elements, then feedback loops are their interconnections, and in every system there are two kinds: reinforcing (or ‘positive’) feedback loops and balancing (or ‘negative’) ones. With reinforcing feedback loops, the more you have, the more you get. They amplify what is happening, creating vicious or virtuous circles that will, if unchecked, lead either to explosive growth or to collapse. Chickens lay eggs, which hatch into chickens, and so the poultry population grows and grows. Likewise, in the vengeful tit-for-tat of playground fights, a single rough shove can soon escalate into a full-blown bust-up. Interest earned on savings adds to those savings, increasing future interest payments, and so wealth accumulates. But reinforcing feedback can lead to collapse too: the less you have, the less you get. If people lose confidence in their bank and withdraw their savings, for example, it will start to run out of cash, deepening the loss of confidence and leading to a run on the bank

– [[Doughnut Economics]]

If reinforcing feedbacks are what make a system move, then balancing feedbacks are what stop it from exploding or imploding. They counter and offset what is happening, and so tend to regulate systems. Our bodies use balancing feedbacks to maintain a healthy temperature: get too hot and your skin will start sweating in order to cool you down; get too cold and your body will start shivering in an attempt to warm itself up. A household’s thermostat works in a similar way to stabilise room temperature. And in a playground scuffle, someone is likely to step in and try to break it up. In effect, balancing feedbacks bring stability to a system

– [[Doughnut Economics]]

Complexity emerges from the way that reinforcing and balancing feedback loops interact with one another: out of their dance emerges the system’s behaviour as a whole, and it can often be unpredictable

– [[Doughnut Economics]]

This can be used creatively. At a historic performance in 1969, legendary guitarist [[Jimi Hendrix]] gave a great example of the artistic use of feedback. It’s a mixture of science, art - and social commentary. The tune he plays is the Star-Spangled Banner, commenting on the Vietnam war, its blowback into US society, the feedback loops between different registers of violence and alienation.

– [[How systems theory can help us reflect on the world]]

harnessed feedback

A great applications of systems thinking is the work of [[James Lovelock]], and here too, feedback is a central theme. For example, global cooling could trigger the expansion of polar ice-caps, making the earth whiter and hence reflecting more heat and making it colder still. But the earth-system, like Hendrix, can play creatively with its feedback, maintaining some equilibrium and regulation. This is what we risk losing today, if there’s a tipping-point leading to global warming feedback.

– [[How systems theory can help us reflect on the world]]

[[Accumulation]] is in essence a feedback loop: grabbing portions of nature (land, resources) permits a minority to accumulate wealth, which in turn becomes an entitlement to accumulate more wealth.

And from a social angle, [[laissez-faire]] typifies a dangerous manifestation of the principle of feedback. Wealth is an entitlement to accumulate more wealth, leading ultimately to its concentration in fewer and fewer hands.

– [[What is wrong with a system of laissez-faire economics?]]

• [[Sleep]] Test: What numbers moved while you were [[sleeping]]?
• How quickly can I [[know]] if this [[created]] [[value]]? collapsed:: true
  • [[Repetition]]- when people try to do something with it again and again.
• Total [[hours]] saved / hours I invested in [[time]]
• What's getting more [[cheap]] than people realize? Where is [[price]] going? collapsed:: true
  • What's getting more [[expensive]] than people realize?
• When did the [[body]] feel [[light]] today? What gave it [[energy]]?
• How many [[hours]] in [[time]] does it take from when I [[learn]] something new to when that [[knowledge]] [[creates]] something other people [[want]]?
• For [[Live-Action Battle Arena]]: collapsed:: true
  • Did both [[fighters]] just instinctively [[fist-bump]] after the [[round]]?
  • Did the [[crowd]] go 'ooh'?
  • Do they immediately [[want]] to [[go]] again?
  • Did they just yell their [[team]] mate's name in [[excitement]]?
  • Did they make a new callout?
  • Are they strategizing between [[games]]?
  • Are they huddling up before and after?
• Did they just [[touch]] it without instruction? Do they know how to [[use]] it from touching it? [[affordances]]
• Would they [[feel]] [[mad]] if they couldn't [[use]] it [[tomorrow]]?
• Did they just [[lean]] forward?
• Are people staring at it?
• Did their [[posture]] just get better?
• What [[wave]] would this [[ride]]?
• What [[feedback]] [[loops]] would this tighten?
• What [[barriers]] would this remove for others?
• Where does their [[attention]] [[flow]]?
• [[Time]]-to-[[sigh]]: collapsed:: true
  • Why are people accepting this?
  • Marks pent-up [[frustration]], and an [[avalanche]] of [[potential]] under [[growing]] [[resentment]].
• When [[perception]] is tied to [[action]], the [[body]] becomes the [[fastest]] [[feedback]] [[loop]].
• Are women's eyes lighting up when they look in the [[mirror]]?
• Where is perceived [[power]] becoming actual power?
• What belief just [[changed]] what's [[possible]]?
• What [[stories]] are reaching out and [[touching]] the rest of the world?
• Will this make [[wetware]] to make [[copies]] of real [[bacteria]] [[possible]]?