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Quotes from Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior — W. Ross Ashby

1903–1972 England

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2 quotes

Every stable system has the property that if displaced from a state of equilibrium and released, the subsequent movement is so matched to the initial displacement that the system is brought back to the state of equilibrium. A variety of disturbances will therefore evoke a variety of matched reactions.

Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior (1952)

The primary fact is that all isolated state-determined dynamic systems are selective: from whatever state they have initially, they go towards states of equilibrium. These states of equilibrium are always characterised, in their relation to the change-inducing laws of the system, by being exceptionally resistant.

Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior (1952)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: W. Ross Ashby (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.