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feedback
The mutually reciprocal effect of one system or subsystem on another. Negative feedback is when two subsystems act to dampen the output of the other. For example, the relation of predators and prey can be described by a negative feedback loop since the more predators there are leads to a decline in the population of prey, but when prey decrease too much so does the population of predators since they don’t have enough food. Positive feedback means that two subsystems are amplifying each other’s outputs, e.g., the screech heard in a public address system when the mike is too close to the speaker. The microphone amplifies the sound from the speaker which in turn amplifies the signal from the microphone, and so on. Feedback is a way of talking about the nonlinear interaction among the elements or components in a system and can be modeled by nonlinear differential or difference equations as well as by the activity of cells in a cellular automata array.
Related categories
• SYSTEMS THEORY
• COMPUTERS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AND CYBERNETICS
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