Readable atlas · Release 0.35
Feedback
A circular causal or informational relation in which an output or consequence affects later input, state or action. The sign, delay, reference condition and mechanism must be stated.
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Summary
Feedback is not merely receiving comments. It is a circular relation in which consequences return to influence what happens next. The loop may counteract change, reinforce it, oscillate, delay response or fail because no actor can use the returned information.
Implications for practice
Systems work often says feedback when it means reporting, evaluation, data or learning. Those are only feedback when they close a loop that can alter subsequent action. Sign, delay, reference condition and response capacity determine what the loop actually does.
Key distinctions
- negative or balancing vs positive or reinforcing feedback
- feedback vs feedforward
- feedback signal vs capacity to respond
- physical causal loop vs returned information
- feedback mechanism vs homeostatic condition
- measurement vs learning
Historical development
- Maxwell 1868: mathematical governor analysis as a precursor
- Black 1934: stabilised negative-feedback amplifiers
- Rosenblueth, Wiener and Bigelow 1943: purposive behaviour and negative feedback
- Wiener 1948: cybernetic synthesis across animals and machines
Ideas it depends on
- distinguishable input, output and state
- a return path through which consequences can alter later conditions
- time, delay and loop gain
- a reference or viability condition where correction is claimed
Further developments
- control and regulation
- system dynamics
- management cybernetics
- learning-loop metaphors
- homeostatic and adaptive models
Connections to practice
- ask what information returns to whom
- test whether anyone can alter action in response
- state the delay before effects become visible
- separate balancing from reinforcing loops
- look for loops that reward gaming rather than purpose
Common confusions
- more feedback is always better
- positive means good and negative means bad
- a dashboard is feedback even when nobody can act
- homeostasis and feedback are synonyms
- all loops stabilise
Further checks
- Nyquist and Bode lineage
- Forrester and system dynamics
- Bateson, Argyris and learning
- Beer and organisational feedback channels
Recorded connections
Check the wording, direction, scope, sources, and status of a connection before relying on it.
Feedback is an explanatory prerequisite for First Circular Causality Principle
Status: provisional · Relation: explanatory prerequisite
This is an interpretive conceptual crosswalk. It does not assert direct historical influence, formal equivalence or universal validity. The wording should be challenged or strengthened with page-level evidence.
Locator: Crosswalk from the maintained law description and cited Grammar sources to the target entry's maintained definition
Feedback is an explanatory prerequisite for Second Circular Causality Principle
Status: provisional · Relation: explanatory prerequisite
This is an interpretive conceptual crosswalk. It does not assert direct historical influence, formal equivalence or universal validity. The wording should be challenged or strengthened with page-level evidence.
Locator: Crosswalk from the maintained law description and cited Grammar sources to the target entry's maintained definition
Status: provisional · Relation: generalises
This is an interpretive conceptual crosswalk. It does not assert direct historical influence, formal equivalence or universal validity. The wording should be challenged or strengthened with page-level evidence.
Locator: Crosswalk from the maintained law description and cited Grammar sources to the target entry's maintained definition
Feedback is an explanatory prerequisite for Feedback Dominance Theorem
Status: provisional · Relation: explanatory prerequisite
This is an interpretive conceptual crosswalk. It does not assert direct historical influence, formal equivalence or universal validity. The wording should be challenged or strengthened with page-level evidence.
Locator: Crosswalk from the maintained law description and cited Grammar sources to the target entry's maintained definition
32 Key Concepts in Systems Thinking and Complexity Theory includes in its synthesis Feedback
Status: accepted · Relation: includes in synthesis
This line records inclusion in Jurgen Appelo's named 32-concept synthesis. It does not endorse the definition, score or placement as a field consensus.
Locator: Heading: Feedback
Status: legacy unverified · Relation: legacy association unspecified
No statement-level locator recorded.
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
Feedback was linked in an inherited map, but the meaning of the link is unresolved Homeostasis
Status: legacy unverified · Relation: legacy association unspecified
No statement-level locator recorded.
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
Feedback is a definitional prerequisite for System Dynamics
Status: accepted · Relation: definitional prerequisite
Feedback is a defining structural commitment of system dynamics models, alongside stocks and flows; this does not imply that feedback alone constitutes system dynamics.
Locator: Study of System Dynamics, opening method description and paragraph beginning 'The model is usually a computer simulation model'
- Study of System Dynamics (checked method guide)
Status: legacy unverified · Relation: legacy association unspecified
No statement-level locator recorded.
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
Feedback was linked in an inherited map, but the meaning of the link is unresolved Game theory
Status: legacy unverified · Relation: legacy association unspecified
No statement-level locator recorded.
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
Feedback was linked in an inherited map, but the meaning of the link is unresolved Chaos theory
Status: legacy unverified · Relation: legacy association unspecified
No statement-level locator recorded.
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
James Clerk Maxwell historical precursor Feedback
Status: corroborated · Relation: historical precursor
Locator: pp. 270–283
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
Feedback is focal to the circular account of Cybernetics
Status: provisional · Relation: definitional prerequisite
ASC's institutional history treats feedback and circularity as focal to cybernetics, while also warning that cybernetics has multiple contested histories. The primary Wiener locator remains incomplete.
Locator: ASC Foundations history, sections 'Circularity' and 'Feedback'; Wiener 1948 MIT Press description (exact primary chapter still pending)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Foundations: A Brief History of Cybernetics (checked internal history)
Feedback commonly combined with Regulation
Status: provisional · Relation: commonly combined with
Locator: Feedback overview
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Feedforward complements Feedback
Status: corroborated · Relation: complements
Locator: IEEE topic definitions
- Feedforward systems - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Negative feedback is a more specific form of Feedback
Status: corroborated · Relation: specialises
Locator: Negative and Positive Feedback
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Positive feedback is a more specific form of Feedback
Status: corroborated · Relation: specialises
Locator: Negative and Positive Feedback
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Viable System Model (VSM) uses Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
Locator: The VSM in 1000 words
- Viable System Model - The VSM in 1000 words (research pass needs editor)
Ladder of inference shows conclusions returning through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
The feedback interpretation is a teaching synthesis, not an empirical causal estimate.
Locator: slide 16
- Better conversations for better realities: learning loops to break the devil's bargain (public file identity checked)
Action learning turns experience into action through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: applies
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Agile project management organises short cycles around Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Data analysis including SPC and statistics supports learning from observed Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: applies
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Deming organises improvement around Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- The Deming Philosophy (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Iceberg model can prepare inquiry into Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: complements
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Lean and Six Sigma tests process change through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Learning design and learning conversations builds capability through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Productive conversations returns consequences into dialogue through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Training design builds practice through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Vanguard Method redesigns measures as Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Verbal Behaviours (Rackham) supports behavioural learning through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Non-linearity is often generated through interacting Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: explains
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Behaviour over time graphs prepares inquiry into Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Identify leverage searches structural possibilities within Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Monitoring and evaluation strategy returns observations into action through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: operationalises
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Stock and flow diagrams adds accumulation structure to Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: complements
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Theory of Change maps supports testing and revision through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: applies
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Machine governors provides a physical historical instance of Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: instantiates
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- History of Control (checked)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Control theory regulates behaviour through Feedback
Status: provisional · Relation: uses
This is a provisional semantic or practice crosswalk. It does not establish historical influence, equivalence, efficacy or universal applicability. Item-level source review and curator acceptance are still required.
Locator: Interpretive comparison of the two maintained public descriptions and their cited source records
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- What is Control? (checked)
- History of Control (checked)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Status: candidate · Relation: provides practice for
Basic examples of requisite variety, feedback delay and whole-system effects. The SCiO row is broader; this page does not claim to cover every law in a systems-laws course.
Locator: Named exercise and its scope statement
- Systems laws: test variety, feedback and local optimisation (original material and source boundary recorded)
Public resource: Viable System Model lecture contains a located mention of feedback loop Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: PDF pages 24, 70
- Benjamin Taylor VSM lecture (public file identity checked)
Public resource: Large-group processes (PDF) contains a located mention of feedback loops Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: PDF pages 24, 26, 33, 35, 58, 131, 159, 164, 172
- Large-group processes (located public record)
Public resource: Core systems-change slide set contains a located mention of feedback loops Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: PDF page 35
- Core systems-change slide set (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 11209; page-level locator pending
- Confronting indifference toward truth: Dealing with workplace bullshit (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 16264; page-level locator pending
- Complexity theory and leadership practice: A review, a critique, and some recommendations (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 787063; page-level locator pending
- Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 5980; page-level locator pending
- Systems theory: forgotten legacy and future prospects (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 24451; page-level locator pending
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 85952; page-level locator pending
- Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 5817; page-level locator pending
- Gaia Theory: Between Autopoiesis and Sympoiesis (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 216481; page-level locator pending
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 3567; page-level locator pending
- Turing’s Theory of Morphogenesis: Where We Started, Where We Are and Where We Want to Go (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 22767; page-level locator pending
- Presencing the Future of Democracy and Governance (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 30148; page-level locator pending
Public resource: Cybernetics and Landscape contains a located mention of feedback loops Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 43788; page-level locator pending
- Cybernetics and Landscape (located public record)
Status: candidate · Relation: source text mentions
Exact phrase in extracted source text; page-level checking may remain pending as recorded by the locator. Its appearance may be in discussion, a quotation, a reference, or a critical comparison. No semantic or historical claim is inferred.
Locator: Extracted source text, character 6119; page-level locator pending
- On Control and Communication: Self-regulation and Coordination of Actions (located public record)
Ashby Laboratory presents account of Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: presents account of
The laboratory examines feedback and stability, including why loop sign alone does not establish stability.
Locator: Chapter 5: stability exercises
- Ashby Laboratory (source scoped research pass)
The Equilibrium of Delay — 42 The Systemic Review uses in argument Feedback
Status: candidate · Relation: uses in argument
This records the paper’s use of a concept in its analysis, without treating the diagnosis as independently verified.
Locator: Finding 4; a reinforcing loop involving delayed projects and attention
- The Equilibrium of Delay (source scoped research pass)
Status: candidate · Relation: uses in argument
This records the paper’s use of a concept in its analysis, without treating the diagnosis as independently verified.
Locator: Finding 3; budgets, referrals, and targets stabilising organisational behaviour
- Neighbourhood Health and Care: Building the System Before the Structure (source scoped research pass)
Status: candidate · Relation: uses in argument
The essay asks how recurring patterns are produced and how interventions can displace harm or change the pattern.
Locator: Delivery-schedule example and consequences of interventions
- Where are the systems in systems leadership? (source scoped research pass)
Claims and disputes
Maxwell's 'On Governors' is a historical precursor to later mathematical feedback and control analysis; this does not imply that Maxwell used the later cybernetic concept or terminology.
Claim status: corroborated. Review status: research pass needs editor.
Evidence records: ev_maxwell_governors_precursor. Research pass requires named editorial review before public canonical status.
Supporting sources
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
Positive and negative feedback name the sign and effect of a loop, not whether the result is morally or practically good or bad.
Claim status: corroborated. Review status: research pass needs editor.
Core orientation claim for non-specialist readers.
Supporting sources
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
Feedback is a definitional prerequisite for Wiener's 1948 formulation of cybernetics, while later cybernetics may frame the field more broadly.
Claim status: provisional. Review status: research pass needs editor.
Promote after checking exact primary-book passages.
Supporting sources
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
Sources and passage locators
- SCiO SysBoK - Feedback v1 · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- Systems Thinking Practitioner apprenticeship standard ST0787 v1.2 (checked)
- On Governors (research pass needs editor)
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers (research pass needs editor)
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology (research pass needs editor)
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (research pass needs editor)
- Organization for Physiological Homeostasis (research pass needs editor)
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
- The Grammar of Systems - SCiO presentation (checked)
- The Grammar of Systems II: From Order to Chaos and Back Again, 2nd edition (checked)
- Cybersecurity Lessons from The Grammar of Systems, part 1 (checked)
- Cybersecurity Lessons from The Grammar of Systems, part 2 (checked)
- Cybersecurity Lessons from The Grammar of Systems, part 3 (checked)
- 32 Key Concepts in Systems Thinking and Complexity Theory (checked)
- Study of System Dynamics (checked method guide)
- Foundations: A Brief History of Cybernetics (checked internal history)
- Feedforward systems - IEEE Technology Navigator (research pass needs editor)
- Viable System Model - The VSM in 1000 words (research pass needs editor)
- Better conversations for better realities: learning loops to break the devil's bargain (public file identity checked)
- SCiO CF Resources v9 draft · No public link (pass4 legacy internal register audit)
- SCiO Professional Accreditation and Competency Framework (checked)
- The Deming Philosophy (checked)
- An introductory systems thinking toolkit for civil servants (checked)
- History of Control (checked)
- What is Control? (checked)
- Systems laws: test variety, feedback and local optimisation (original material and source boundary recorded)
- Benjamin Taylor VSM lecture (public file identity checked)
- Large-group processes (located public record)
- Core systems-change slide set (located public record)
- Confronting indifference toward truth: Dealing with workplace bullshit (located public record)
- Complexity theory and leadership practice: A review, a critique, and some recommendations (located public record)
- Designing Social Systems in a Changing World (located public record)
- Systems theory: forgotten legacy and future prospects (located public record)
- Improving the Systems Thinking Skills of the Systems Architect via Aesthetic Interpretation of Art (located public record)
- Systems Approaches to Managing Change: A Practical Guide (located public record)
- Gaia Theory: Between Autopoiesis and Sympoiesis (located public record)
- Improving practice in safeguarding at the interface between hospital services and children’s social care: a mixed-methods case study (located public record)
- Turing’s Theory of Morphogenesis: Where We Started, Where We Are and Where We Want to Go (located public record)
- Presencing the Future of Democracy and Governance (located public record)
- An ecology of bad ideas: approaching human relations with wider nature from an ecological-complexity perspective (located public record)
- Cybernetics and Landscape (located public record)
- On Control and Communication: Self-regulation and Coordination of Actions (located public record)
- Ashby Laboratory (source scoped research pass)
- The Equilibrium of Delay (source scoped research pass)
- Neighbourhood Health and Care: Building the System Before the Structure (source scoped research pass)
- Where are the systems in systems leadership? (source scoped research pass)
- On Governors: Proc. R. Soc. Lond. 16, pp. 270–283 · research pass needs editor
- Stabilized Feedback Amplifiers: Bell System Technical Journal 13(1), abstract and pp. 1–18 · research pass needs editor
- Behavior, Purpose and Teleology: Philosophy of Science 10(1), pp. 18–24 · research pass needs editor
- Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine: MIT Press edition description and open-access edition; exact chapter locator pending · research pass needs editor
- Feedback - IEEE Technology Navigator: Sections: What Is Feedback?; Negative and Positive Feedback · research pass needs editor
- Feedforward systems - IEEE Technology Navigator: Section: What Are Feedforward Systems? · research pass needs editor
- Viable System Model - The VSM in 1000 words: The VSM in 1000 words, paragraphs 2-3 · research pass needs editor
Cite this entry
Taylor, B. P. (2026). Feedback. The Necessary Tangle, release 0.35. https://transduction.systems/entries/concept_feedback/
Include the release and review status when you quote or reuse this account.