This discussion has started with examples from the human body.
Let me first give a reinforcing loop example from the human body.
Consider the development of the human mind. A baby starts to live
with a very limited knowledge and information gathering tools. Perhaps
the first tool he uses is trial and error. Then he learns to ask
questions as an alternative tool. As he learns more he creates the
capacity of learning more in himself. I think this learning process
is the result of a reinforcing loop. Well, this increasing rate of
learning gets balanced at some stage by some factors. In some cases
we say that it is the physical limitation of the human mind. I am not
sure whether it is the truth or we use it as an excuse. Anyway,
the rate of learning somehow decreases in most of the cases. But I
believe that this is a potentially reinforcing process in humans.
Another example is the rate of change that the human race is
experiencing since its existence on this earth. The collective body
of knowledge is the fuel of this change and it gets bigger as a
result of the change (I am ommitting the pessimistic alternative of
total destruction by a nuclear war). I am not sure whether this
process will be balanced by a negative feed-back at some stage, and
whether it can be defined as a bad or ill process (by comparing it to
the spread of a disease in human body).
Alp Baysal
School of Engineering Management
University of Cape Town
e-mail : alp@cerecam.uct.ac.za
tel : 27-21-650 26 00
fax : 27-21-689 27 37