Tech & Science

“Feedback” is a hugely important phenomenon.  It plays a key role in all goal-oriented, dynamic systems, from living organisms to self-driving cars.  Feedback is information that tells a system how it is doing in relation to its goals and guides its behavior over time.  (Feedback systems are often referred to as being “cybernetic”, after the Greek word for “helmsman” – kybernetes.)  Positive feedback tells the system to continue doing what it is doing, or even to do more of it.  And negative feedback tells the system to change its behavior. 

We live in a time when information abounds, a moment away courtesy of the ability to open a phone or tablet and look something up at a moment’s notice. With voice commands you can even do this while driving. You can also ask Amazon Echo or Alexa or Google Home to look something up while you go about your business at home. But is that what makes for happiness and joy, or is it just satisfaction?  And when a generation is accustomed to these tools, will it become purely expectation, and thus, nothing special at all?