Tion being conducted by groups, by the fast method. Thus, if the
Machine is reducible the fast method of selection can be used.
In fact, reducibility is extremely common in our terrestrial sys-
Tems. It is so common that we usually take it for granted, but he
Who would learn how to regulate the very large system must
Become fully aware of it.
To get some idea of how much the world we live in shows
Reducibility, compare its ordinary behaviour with what would
Happen if, suddenly, the reducibility were lost, i.e. if every varia-
Ble had an effect, immediate or delayed, on every other variable.
The turning over of a page of this book, instead of being just that
And nothing more, might cause the lights to change, the table to
Start moving, the clock to change its rate, and so on throughout the
Room. Were the world really to be irreducible, regulation would
Be so difficult as to be impossible, and no organised form of life
Could persist (S.7/17).
The subject must be left now, but what was said in Design … on
“Iterated systems”, and in the chapters that followed, expands the
Thesis. Meanwhile we can draw the conclusion that if a responsi-
ble entity Ω (S.13/10) is to design (i.e. select) a machine to act as
Regulator to a very large system, so that the regulator itself is
Somewhat large, the achieving of the necessary selection within a
Reasonably short time is likely to depend much on whether the
Regulator can be made in reducible form.
Whence the Regulator? Now at last we can answer the
Question that has been latent throughout Part III: how is the
Desired regulator to be brought into being? The question was
Raised in S.13/10, but since then we have explored a variety of top-
Ics, which had to be discussed before the threads could be pulled
Together. Let us now survey the position.
The process of arriving eventually at a particular machine with
Desired properties implies selection, and it also implies that the
262
Responsible entity Q (of S.13/10) has worked successfully to a
Goal With whatever variety the components were initially availa-
Ble, an with whatever variety the designs (i.e. input values) might
Have varied from the final appropriate form, the maker Q acted in
|
|
|
Relation to the goal so as to achieve it. He therefore acted as a reg-
Ulator. Thus the making of a machine of desired properties (in the
Sense of getting it rather than one with undesired properties) is an
Act of regulation.
Suppose now that this machine of desired properties is the reg-
Ulator discussed throughout Part III— how is it to be made The
Answer is inescapable: by another regulator.
Is this a reduction ad absurdum of our whole position? I thin
Not. For the obvious question “where does it all start?” is readily
Answered. As biologists, our fundamental fact (S.10/3) is that the
Earth has now existed for a long time, that selection has acted
Throughout this time, and that selection favours the appearance c
Regulators (S.10/5). These facts alone are sufficient to account for
the presence on the earth today of many good regulators. And n~
Further explanation is necessary if it should be found that some o
These regulators have as goal the bringing of some mechanism to
Standard form, even if the standard form is that of a regulator
(with goal, of course, distinct from that of the first). The scientist
Would merely be mildly curious as to why something that could
Be done directly, in one stage, is actually done indirectly, in two.
We can thus answer this section’s question by saying that a reg-
Ulator can be selected from some general set of mechanisms (man,
Non- regulatory) only by being either the survivor of some process
Of natural selection or by being made (another process of selection
By another regulator.
Is not this making of the desired regulator by two stages
Wasteful? That it should be arrived at in two stages suggests that
The problem of getting a regulator always has to be solved before
it can be tackled!
|
|
|
Again, what does this imply when the very large system to be
Regulated is the social and economic world and the responsible
entity Ω is some set, of sociologists perhaps, whose capacity, as a
Дата добавления: 2019-11-16; просмотров: 218; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!