Cybernetics & Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
Edited by M&T Thellefsen

Homeostatic machines

Definition
machines which display the condition of maintaining constant or within a limited range of values some of their variables.

(Maturana and Varela, 1979) (PC, EA)

Relations:

auto-regulation
the body
the cell
Cybernetic System
Feedback
living system
negative feedback

 

Definitions:

Principia Cybernetica
Encyclopedia Autopoietica
International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics

 

Principia Cybernetica (web)
machines which display the condition of maintaining constant or within a limited range of values some of their variables.

(Maturana and Varela, 1979)

 

Encyclopedia Autopoietica
Those machines (systems) that exhibit "the condition of maintaining constant or within a limited range of values some of their variables." (Maturana & Varela, 1980, p. 136) One succinct definition of an autopoietic machine is as a homeostatic machine whose "constant variable" is its own organization.

 

International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics
HOMEOSTAT

A device created by W.R. ASHBY to demonstrate som properties of the ultrastable systems.

In St. BEER words: "The homeostat is precisely a machine for settling down again after it has been disturbed" (1967, p. 117). As such a property is very general in complex systems which must "cope with an unpredictable environmen…(conveying) random information" (118), the homeostat can be considered a behavioral modelling device of considerable interest. In effect, "we are returned to the old issue of machine design, and that of adaptive behavior to situations not envisaged by the designer" (Ibid).