An important step in the process of self-management is the transition from goal-setting to goal-fulfillment. Such a transition begins with “making a decision” or, which is the same, choosing behavior, i.e., certain changes in the state of a self-governing system in the necessary sequence that ensures the realization of the original goal.
According to P.K. Anokhin, “one of the most remarkable moments in the formation of a behavioral act is the moment of “making a decision” to perform this, and not another action”1. He emphasizes that “the awareness of the need to introduce the very fact of “making a decision” into the structure of integral activity is now covering an ever wider circle of physiologists”2.
The almost infinite variety of living, social and artificial self-governing systems, the conditions for their functioning, the initial goals and means of their implementation predetermine the individuality of each specific act of choice. Together with
"P.K. Anokhin. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex. M., 1968, p. 229.
2 Ibid., p. 331.
Thus, the general laws of control leave an imprint on a specific act of choice, making it structurally similar to other acts of choice in its main features.
In order to consider the general structural features inherent in any act of choice, one should dwell on the objective features, necessary conditions and essence of choosing the behavior of a self-governing system, regardless of the level of its organization.
Let's start with the objective signs of choice.
W. R. Ashby considers that the sign of the choice being made is the desire of the machine to balance. "He calls everything that behaves "machine-like", that is, a system whose internal state and the state of the environment unambiguously determine the subsequent states of this system2. Ashby emphasizes that each isolated deterministic dynamic system, subject to unchanging laws, creates "organisms" of adaptation to the environment.3 Such a system, passing from any state to a state of equilibrium, makes a choice in the objective sense that some states are rejected by it, and only those are preserved into which it passes Ashby concludes that “to the extent that every deterministic system strives for equilibrium, it makes a choice”4.
Judging by the examples he cited (autopilot, company, person), Ashby means homeostatic systems that tend to balance in the sense of maintaining the value of some of their parameters. For the simplest homeostats (for example, a thermostat)
"See W. Ross Ashby. Principles of self-organization. - "Principles of self-organization". M., 1966, p. 333.
2 See ibid., p. 321.
3 See ibid., p. 332.
4 Ibid., p. 333.
the transition to equilibrium can be considered one of the signs of choice. However, when considering the process of functioning of highly organized self-governing systems (higher animals, humans, social systems), this feature no longer makes it possible to establish the fact of choice, because "machine-likeness" in the sense of an unambiguous connection of subsequent states of the system with previous ones and with the state of the environment does not take place. Highly organized systems do not necessarily choose an equilibrium state under all conditions. In a given situation, they can make different decisions, choose different behaviors, each of which ensures the satisfaction of the needs of the system that caused the need for choice.
P. K. Anokhin points to three objective signs that “there is a mechanism in the construction of a behavioral act that can be connected with the process that in human practice is called a “decision””1. He believes that the first objective sign consists in the rapid release from excessive degrees of freedom and the realization of one possibility that has an adaptive value for an organism (in general, a self-governing system, we would add) at a given moment and precisely in a given situation 2. This sign could be called simplifying the general situation or limiting the number of degrees of freedom of a self-governing system. However, it should be said that this feature alone is not enough to reliably state the presence of a choice, since the limitation of the number of degrees of freedom is also carried out with a physical
"P.K. Anokhin. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex, p. 229.
2 See ibid., pp. 229, 231, 233.
The process of transition without any choice of a non-self-governing system from an unlikely to a most probable state.
The second objective sign of "decision making"
or the choice of behavior consists in the fact that after the receipt of numerous and varied information in some “apparatus”, through numerous discrete communications, highly coded information comes out of this “apparatus” through a well-defined channel1.
Apparently, this objective feature alone is also not enough for a confident statement of the fact of “making a decision”, since various information coming through different channels can first be processed (comparison, generalization, etc.), recoded and then stored in “ block" of memory, and not be used as a stimulus for the next action of the system.
The simultaneous presence of the first and second signs already gives grounds for the conclusion about the implementation of the “decision”, since information processes of the described type can occur only in self-controlled systems capable of “making a decision”, and limiting the number of degrees of freedom of a self-controlled system, as a rule, is associated with the choice certain behavior (we do not consider cases of "forced" restriction from the outside of the number of degrees of freedom).
The third objective sign of "decision making" is quite independent. It consists in the fact that there is some kind of internal “leading motivation” for changing the state of the system2. This motivation has
1 See P.K. Anokhin. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex, p. 233.
2 See ibid.
biological content" and has a decisive influence on the nature and result of the choice of the system's behavior. Such a leading motivation is nothing but a functional invariant, or the initial goal, of a self-governing system.
The above three signs of "decision making" are internal signs in the sense that they are not always easy to detect without a thorough preliminary study of the structure and capabilities of the system, the number of degrees of its freedom in a given situation, i.e. without studying the essential, deep processes.
In addition to internal objective signs of behavior choice, there are more obvious, "external" objective signs.
Running a little ahead, we note that the choice or "decision making" is possible in the presence of a certain, but limited freedom of the choosing system from the influences of the external environment. This circumstance can serve as a basis for isolating such a sign of choice as the ambiguity of the connection between the reason for the choice and its result. Thus, D. Wald believes that the essence of "free will" is associated with uncertainty2. Thus, the hallmark of decision-making (realization of "free will", in Wald's terminology) is unpredictability.
We are far from thinking of identifying the free will of a person with the freedom of choice that self-governing systems that do not possess consciousness have. At the same time, it should be noted that in most cases the result of the choice of behavior is unambiguously unpredictable, not only in relation to human beings.
See L. Bertalanffy. General Systems Theory - A Critical Review. - "Studies in General Systems Theory", p. 73.
2 See D. Wald. Determinism, individuality and the problem of free will. - "Science and Life", 1967, No. 2.
ka, but also all other highly organized self-managed systems. The exception is low-organized self-managing systems that choose one of two alternative possibilities, and even then it is strictly defined. Knowing some properties of these systems, one can always unambiguously predict the result of the choice. For example, we can unambiguously predict that a moth will always fly towards a light source.
However, in the world of physical phenomena, situations often arise when it is impossible to unambiguously predict the effect of a given cause and one has to resort to a probabilistic description. Thus, it is impossible to unambiguously predict the behavior of a microparticle after its interaction with the device. Does this mean that a microparticle has "free will", "makes a decision", makes a "choice" of its behavior? No, it doesn't. Therefore, the discovered ambiguous connection between the reason for the change in the state of the system and this state itself does not yet say with certainty that a decision was “made” and a choice of behavior was made to the extent of the released system of some kind of freedom (released, of course, by objective conditions).
A stronger external sign of a “decision made”, a choice of behavior made, is the ambiguity of the connection between the actual consequence of the choice and the cause that caused it. If there was a choice, then the ambiguity of the connection between the result of the choice and the cause that caused it is detected in a retrospective analysis of the change in the state of the system.
We draw the reader's attention to the fact that the concept of "the connection of a cause with its actual effect" is not always identical to the concept of "the connection of an actual effect with the cause that produced it." At first glance, it might seem that if
is unambiguously connected with its actual effect, then the actual effect “must” also be unambiguously connected with its cause. In fact, this is not always the case.
Chapter 1 has already discussed the role of macro-causation retrospective analysis, an analysis that removes the uncertainty of the predicted cause and effect relationship. Let us use the possibilities of a retrospective analysis in order to explain the idea of the optional identity of the “significance” of the connection between the cause and the actual effect and the connection between the actual effect and the cause that caused it.
Let's look at a few examples.
At the sight of a road destroyed by a mountain landslide, it would not occur to us in our right mind to reason as follows: “If a piece of rock had not fallen down onto the road, but had rolled up and, having crossed the top of the mountain, fell from its opposite slope, then the road would have been whole." We know very well that in this situation there is no alternative. A piece of rock could not help but fall down onto the road. The laws of nature cannot be repealed. In inanimate nature, causation is always carried out according to the optimal variant, i.e., in accordance with the principle of least action. In this case, there is an unambiguous connection not only between the cause (the fall of a piece of rock) and the effect (destruction of the road), but also the actual effect with the cause that caused it, and we can confidently say that there was and could not be any “solution”, no choice. .
Clearing the road after a collapse, we suddenly find the corpse of a goat, which of the three roads of equal length (upper, middle and lower) chose the lower one and got into trouble. We have the thought: “Poor thing, if you had gone along one of the two upper roads, you would have remained alive.” In form, our second
reasoning does not differ from the first, but in content they are opposite: the first is false, the second is true, since it does not contradict any law of nature.
The collapse led the goat to death. And in this case, there is an unambiguous connection between the cause (the collapse) and the effect it produced (the death of the goat). But the death of the goat itself was an accident for her. After all, the goat might not have died if it had gone along one of the two upper roads. In a retrospective analysis of the connection between the actual consequence (the death of a goat) and the cause that caused it, we can no longer assert that a goat that set off on a journey early in the morning should have fatally died at noon from a collapse. In this case, there is no such unambiguous relationship.
The reader may object: “What is there to talk about an ambiguous connection over the body of a dead goat? She's dead, and how do we know she could have gone down a different path since she took that one? In addition, a piece of rock also accidentally fell on a goat, and then there can be no question of any unambiguous connection between cause and effect.
To remove this objection, let's "replay" the situation. But first, let us point out that it was not accidental for the fragment to fall at noon exactly on this place on the road. The destruction of the road at the place of the fall and everything that was in this place was not accidental either.
Now suppose that we witnessed the collapse (being on the slope of the opposite mountain) and saw that the same goat was walking along the road, just under the rock at the time of its fall. Hearing a menacing crack and rumble, she turned to the source of the sound and saw falling rocks. For a moment she was immobile, and then she rushed to run back (or forward) and jumped out to safety in time. Looking back on these events, we could
to say that if the goat had rushed to run not backward, but forward, then she would also have been saved. In doing so, we will not sin against any law of nature.
And in this case, there is an unambiguous connection between the cause - a mountain collapse and the consequence - the flight of a goat back (or forward). However, there is no unambiguous connection between the consequence - the flight back from the danger with the cause that caused it - the collapse. After all, the goat was in the center of the danger zone. She might as well run forward. The fact that the goat does not have to run back creates some uncertainty about the connection between the actual effect and the cause that caused it in retrospect. As at the beginning of the collapse, we could not unambiguously predict in which direction the goat would run, so after the collapse and the actual flight of the goat back, we cannot reliably bring the goat’s flight back into an unambiguous relationship (in the sense of inevitability, the strict necessity of this flight back, and only back) with the risk of collapse.
The very fact of the ambiguous connection between the direction of the goat's flight and the reason that caused this flight irrefutably indicates that the goat "made a decision" at the sight of danger, chose its behavior, guided by the criterion of survival. If in this case the goat made an important decision (stay in place, run back, run forward) and escaped, then in the first example, long before the collapse, it made a less important decision: which of the three roads to take. By chance, she chose a dangerous road, but she could also accidentally choose a safe one. Therefore, in this situation there was no unambiguous connection between the actual effect and the cause that caused it. There remained the same uncertainty that tempts some historians to paint a picture of what would have happened if this or that historical
the logical agent would have acted differently than he did, but differently.
Here we will also hear arguments that if Napoleon had not gone on a campaign against Russia, he would not have been defeated and would not have lost his army. In this case, by pursuing a cautious policy, he would remain in power indefinitely. This thought does not surprise us, since Napoleon did not necessarily have to start this adventure. He could confine himself to more modest, but safer deeds. It was just the wrong choice.
Recognizing the main trends in the historical development of society, we cannot take the position of fatalism in matters of random historical events, that is, the initial predestination of any actions of people. After all, there is a relatively independent "decision making", a choice of behavior, when one of several real possibilities is selected.
One way or another, if we find an ambiguous connection between the actual effect and the cause that caused it, we can confidently assume that an act of “making a decision” was committed, an act of choosing the behavior of a self-governing system.
There is another objective external sign of the choice of behavior - the high activity of the system, which qualitatively differs from the activity of non-self-controlled physical objects. Such activity is manifested in spontaneous transitions of the system into unlikely states. This is such a striking sign that even a child in the first two or three years of his life gains experience in distinguishing between animals and their puppet models.
B. Dunham successfully called the act of "making a decision" an element of self-expression that distinguishes behavior
every being with a certain independence from external influences.
Let's pass to consideration of some objective conditions of a choice of behavior.
A necessary objective condition for the act of choosing behavior is the external reason for “making a decision”.
As applied to self-governing systems, the concept of "external cause" is relative in the sense that it fixes the independence of the cause from the formation that chooses its behavior, which can be a self-governing system as a whole, its separate subsystem, and even one element of its structure. Being external to the element, the cause may be internal to the subsystem in which this element belongs. The cause external to the subsystem remains; internal to the self-governing system as a whole. And only causes that are completely independent of the self-governing system as a whole become external to it in the absolute sense of the word.
The concept of "external cause" is also relative in the sense that it reflects the emergence of an objective external factor in the choice of behavior, which can appear in two ways. First, an external cause can arise regardless of a change in the state of a self-governing system (a gust of wind brings to the fox the smell of a hare feeding on the opposite side of the forest edge and serves as an external reason for choosing a behavior); secondly, an external factor may begin to act as a result of a change in the state, including the position in space, of the self-governing system itself (the same fox, wandering along the edge of the forest into a calm
"See B. Dunham. Heroes and heretics. A political history of Western thought. M, 1967, p. 37.
weather, may stumble upon a fresh trail of a hare, and this will serve as a reason for choosing her subsequent behavior).
Why is choice impossible if the formation (element, subsystem, self-governing system as a whole) that chooses its behavior is not affected by an external cause?
The need for “making a decision” arises when the dynamic balance of an element, subsystem or self-governing system as a whole is disturbed, their homeostasis, their functional invariant are violated. If we do not take into account the natural wear and tear of the system and its components (for a short period of time, such wear is practically very small), then the functional invariant (homeostasis) can only be violated by a changing environment, i.e. external factors (it makes no difference whether a change has occurred external environment, regardless of the system or as a result of a change in its state).
What can induce the autonomic nervous system, which controls the activity of the heart, to “make” a decision to change the frequency of contractions of the heart muscle? Only external factors: a decrease in the percentage of oxygen in the air, a change in the intensity of the activity of the body as a whole, the introduction of certain chemical compounds into the body, etc. The same can be said about any act of choosing the behavior of any self-governing system. In one form or another, directly or indirectly, immediately or gradually, an external cause serves as a reason for choice.
The main objective condition for the choice of behavior can be called the internal reason for "making a decision". Such internal causes, relatively independent of external conditions, are
sya: “leading motivation”, “selection criterion”, or, which is the same, the internal initial goal of the functioning of an element, subsystem or self-governing system as a whole, which has a material embodiment in the form of a functional invariant.
A “decision” is always made for the sake of something. This is its inner meaning, and this is its significance for the functioning of a self-governing system. The act of choosing behavior fills the original goal with such a meaning, expressing the current or long-term needs of the element, subsystem or self-governing system as a whole choosing its behavior. . These needs are represented by a hierarchy of functional invariants. Therefore, the choice of behavior is carried out for the sake of preserving the values of functional invariants.
An important objective condition for "making a decision" is a certain ratio of external and internal reasons for choosing behavior. Such an attitude should be one of contradiction, of non-coincidence of tendencies.
If the tendencies of the internal cause of the original goal and the external reason coincide, there is no need to “make a decision” and choose something, since the external reason acts in the direction of the original goal, a self-governing system can passively be content with the finished result presented by its action of an external factor. Thus, migratory birds use a tailwind during their annual migrations, and such use also frees from the need to choose the optimal direction of the flight of the flock in order to reach the "destination" - the banks of the Nile or the swamps of the Siberian tundra. A switched-on refrigerator exposed to frost after a while will no longer make a choice between turning on and not turning on the computer.
pressor, since the temperature in the working chamber will be maintained at a given level by external cold air.
The direct opposite of the tendencies of the original goal and the action of an external factor in many cases also excludes the possibility of "making a decision." In order to realize the goal, the self-governing system has no other choice but to act in a single direction, which ensures complete overcoming of the influence of an external factor. So, many species of marine fish have no choice but to overcome the course of rivers with the greatest expenditure of strength in order to spawn in their upper reaches.
It should be said that all the above reasoning can be considered acceptable only if the external factor does not destroy the self-governing system before it has had time to “make a decision” and ensure its survival by its actions (if, of course, it can survive at all with this change). external conditions of its functioning). Therefore, the specific "ceiling" of the influence of an external factor on a given self-governing system could also be considered one of the objective conditions for its choice of behavior.
An essential objective condition for the choice of behavior is the presence of many real possibilities for changing the state of a self-governing system. In order for the act of choice to take place, it is necessary to have something from which to choose something. If there is only one real possibility of changing the state of the system, then the choice is excluded, as it is excluded for a sparrow caught by a cat, whose neck is bitten by it.
Two real possibilities for changing the state of an element, subsystem or self-managing system
in general, they are already opening the doors to choice. With regard to the two real possibilities, the act of "making a decision" is already legitimate. Either the first or the second possibility is chosen for its subsequent transformation into reality.
At the same time, in order for the act of choice to take place, it is necessary to have not a simple set of any real possibilities for changing the state of the choosing system, but a special set of such real possibilities that are combined into this set by a common property: the implementation of any of these possibilities leads to a result, one way or another corresponding to both the external reason for the choice, and the internal reason for the choice, i.e. the original goal of the element, subsystem or self-governing system as a whole ".
For example, the force of gravity serves as an external cause of the unconscious and continuous selection of such a state of the body of a seated or standing person in which it maintains an unlikely vertical position. Of all the degrees of freedom, of all the real possibilities of changing the state of muscles, the position of the body, head and limbs in space, a set of only such possibilities is automatically outlined, each of which, after implementation, would somehow correspond to gravity (muscle tension, etc.) and the problem of maintaining the vertical position of the body (the location of the center of gravity on the vertical, which does not intersect the surface of the support outside the area of the actual support of the body). At the same time, the correspondence of the result of the choice to the task or the initial goal of the choice is never absolutely complete. The vertical position must be continuously maintained by a number of subsequent decisions.
"See B. S. Ukraintsev. The processes of self-government and causality. - "Questions of Philosophy", 1968, No. 4.
If such a real possibility of changing the state of the body is chosen, after the implementation of which the projection of the center of gravity goes beyond the support area, then the correspondence of the actual result of the choice of the original goal completely disappears and the person falls. In this case, the correspondence of the result of the choice to the external cause instantly increases: the body passes from an unlikely vertical state to the most probable state. But in this case, the usual laws of physical infliction already apply.
In the state of weightlessness (during space flights) there is no longer anything to choose for that "department" of the central nervous system, which ensures the vertical position of the body in the Earth's gravitational field. This happens because the external reason for the choice has disappeared, and after its disappearance, the internal goal of maintaining the body in an upright position has lost its functional significance.
The obligatory correspondence of the result of the choice to its external and internal reasons (there may be many) indicates the fundamental incompleteness of this correspondence, since, as a rule, an increase in correspondence to an internal cause leads to a decrease in correspondence to an external cause and vice versa (with the exception of those rare cases when the trends of external and internal causes match). We will consider this problem in more detail below, but for now we note that the “double”, “triple” and any “n-th” correspondence of the result of the choice to its causes indicates the systemic nature of the “general” reason for the choice, which includes an external reason as subsystems. and purpose of choice.
We have reason to raise the question of a single systemic reason for the choice of behavior, since in the aggregate the external reason and the purpose of the choice do not form
they form a composite cause in the sense in which it was mentioned in the first chapter, but form a natural connection of a single integral formation, representing an independent type of the target cause.
Among the objective conditions of choice, the means of choice should be noted. The concept of "means of choice" is not identical with the concept of "a set of real possibilities of choice" because the presence of this set is still not enough for the act of choice to take place. Other material prerequisites are also necessary: firstly, the isolation of one (several) real possibilities and, secondly, the transformation of this possibility into reality. Such prerequisites make up the arsenal of means of the act of choice - active selection and transformation of a real possibility into reality.
Strictly speaking, the means of choice are an integral part of the means of achieving goals. However, we single out the concepts of "means of choice" in order to emphasize the active, efficient side of choice. The latter cannot be limited to a “contemplative”, “platonic” choice, like a child mentally choosing an expensive toy railway in front of a sparkling toy store window, secretly realizing that in return they will probably buy a cheaper and now unnecessary drum.
The act of choice ends with the transformation of the chosen real possibility into reality. And for such a transformation, appropriate material means are required.
The ability of a self-governing system to make a choice, the ability to "make a decision" can be enlisted among the conditions for choosing behavior. What determines the ability of the system to "make a decision"? Accumulated experience. For that
to build a bridge from the present to the future, it is necessary to rely on the past, which allows us to identify the development trend.
We have already mentioned the importance of accumulated experience for goal setting. In a certain sense, goal-setting already lays the foundation for the formation of the system's ability to choose, since it gives it an internal criterion for "making a decision", based on the experience inherited or accumulated by the system.
At the same time, in order to apply this criterion, the system needs to find ways to use it, or rather, satisfy it. In other words, it is necessary to choose the most suitable real possibility of goal realization. The ability to make such choices comes as a result of phylogenetic and ontogenetic learning.
First of all, a self-governing system must be able to identify a set of those real possibilities, the implementation of each of which leads to the mentioned result, corresponding to the goal of the system and the external reason for the choice. In phylogenetic learning, “knowledge” of sets is inherited in the form of unconditioned reflexes of recognition of real possibilities for realizing an internal goal in accordance with external factors (for example, sucking movements of an infant when smelling and tasting milk or touching the breast, real possibilities for thermoregulation of the body, preservation of blood composition etc.).
In phylogenetic learning, a self-managed system gains experience independently of its own actions. Actively interacting with the external environment, a self-governing system acquires individual experience or ontogenetically learns to act in a situation unforeseen by “innate experience”. On the examples of their mistakes and successes
a self-governing system “learns” what can and is useful to do in given external conditions and what cannot or should not be done (sometimes ontogenetic learning ends with the death of a system that has begun to experience the possibility of changing its state, which is not allowed for its survival).
Having singled out such a set, a self-governing system should be able to dispose of it, choose the most appropriate real opportunity for its purpose without losing the correspondence of the result of the choice to an external reason.
The importance of body training in the process of work and during sports exercises is well known to increase the ability to timely automatic choice of the most promising real opportunities to achieve the desired results. Also known is the importance of mental training in solving mathematical or other problems, for the development of intuition, which manifests itself in quick orientation when faced with new problems.
Having considered the basic conditions for "making a decision", let's move on to characterizing the essence of the choice of behavior.
The essence of the choice of behavior is revealed in the act of the simplest choice, which we will call elementary. The choice of behavior can be called elementary under the following conditions: firstly, if there is one external reason for the choice; secondly, if one initial goal is set, which cannot be divided into simpler goals; thirdly, if the set of real possibilities for realizing the original goal consists of only two elements.
Thus, with an elementary choice, the interaction of one external cause with one initial goal of choice leads to the transformation of one of the two real possibilities for realizing the goal into action.
validity. We see that the essence of elementary choice is the transition from the original goal to the realized goal, or, in other words, the transition from the probability of the original goal to the certainty of the realized goal.
The concept of an elementary choice is abstract, because in most cases the choosing system (or its subsystems and elements) has to make much more complex choices, “make decisions” under the action of several external causes, the presence of several set initial goals and in the conditions of the existence of many real possibilities with more than two elements. Here is how P. K. Anokhin describes “decision making” in the respiratory process, when several goals for using the respiratory apparatus are set. “The amount of air taken in by the lungs at a given moment is an accurate reflection of the body's need for oxygen and carbon dioxide. Any change in this need is immediately realized in a decrease or increase in air intake ... It is quite obvious that the final motor neurons of the respiratory center receive a “command” that accurately reflects this need of the body. However, this need is complex: it includes several components that must be integrated, and only after that the final motor neuron of the respiratory center receives a well-defined “decision”: whether to take 400 or 600 cm3 of air.
The need for such a “decision making” and taking a certain amount of air at a certain frequency and depth of respiratory acts becomes especially obvious when the breathing apparatus is used for a different, non-respiratory purpose, for example, in the case of singing or speech.
Since the oxidative function of tissues cannot
can be terminated neither in the case of singing, nor in the case of prolonged speech, the final respiratory neurons become a kind of "servants of two masters." On the one hand, they must meet the body's needs for an influx of oxygen, on the other hand, they must carry out fairly accurately programmed in terms of volume and rhythm expansion of the chest when pronouncing a sound. Here, a very subtle afferent synthesis of all the conditions described above takes place, and only after that a “decision is made” is made to create exactly this volume of the chest and precisely at this moment.
Having dismissed “making a decision” as a critical point in the development of the respiratory act, it will be very difficult for us to answer the question: how diverse afferent conditions in the form of various needs of the organism at the moment (CO2, O2, speech, a diseased lung, etc.) are resolved in in the end, in the intake of this particular amount of air, and not another?
An example of "decision making" with two external causes and one initial goal - the task of survival can be the actions of a fox fleeing from a hunter and from a dog.
The task of choosing behavior for several external reasons and several set goals in the face of a large number of real opportunities for the implementation of these goals becomes very difficult. And yet, an elementary choice can be considered as a kind of “atom” of any choice, no matter how complex it may be. The most difficult choice can still be mentally divided into a series of successively implemented elementary choices, since
"P.K. Anokhin. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex, p. 232.
Since various external causes are in principle separable from each other, the goals of choice lend themselves to splitting into subgoals or elementary simple goals.
As for the set of real possibilities for achieving goals, the choice can be easily reduced first to an elementary choice from two subsets, in one of which the most acceptable possibilities are concentrated, then it is possible to make a choice from two parts of the subset according to the same principle, etc., until there is only the two most acceptable options, from which one option is selected.
Such an analytical consideration is useful in that it allows us to simplify the problem by reducing its solution to a series of successive solutions of simpler problems.
In some cases, the actual choice of behavior is carried out precisely in this analytical way, successively following one after another elementary choices. Therefore, the answer to the question almost always matters: with the help of how many successively made elementary choices can a given complex concrete choice be made? "
An elementary choice establishes a non-linear dependence of the consequence of the choice on its causes. One could speak of the principle of non-linearity of elementary choice. A multitude of external causes, a multitude of initial goals, and several real possibilities for achieving goals in a complex choice predetermine an even more complex dependence of the result of a choice on its causes compared to an elementary choice.
With an elementary choice, an unambiguous linear relationship is preserved between the set of real possibilities for achieving goals as an integral formation and the internal reason for the choice - the initial one.
An integral and unambiguous connection of the same set with an external cause. Given the external and internal reasons for choice, there is one, and only one, set of real possibilities for the transition from the original goal to the realized goal.
The very act of choice is associated with a particular possibility. Therefore, when performing an act of elementary choice, the uniqueness of the connection between the set and the reasons for the choice is eliminated and a multi-valued connection arises between an individual opportunity and the initial goal of the choice and its external cause. This is because the realization of each possibility individually leads to a result that is simultaneously consistent with the original goal and the external reason for the choice. Instead of one possibility, another possibility could be chosen, instead of the second - a third, and so it would be possible to sort through all the possibilities from the given set without depriving the act of choosing its essence - being a transition from goal setting to goal realization
The spontaneous process of evolution knows neither goal-setting nor goal-fulfillment. Evolution unfolds in time without "decision making", without the implementation of acts of "choice of behavior" of species from generation to generation.
In contrast to this natural process, which takes place over billions of years, each individual living system, during the short time of its existence, takes hundreds of millions, if not billions of different “decisions” and, in accordance with them, passes into new states that meet the task of its survival and further development. .
The objective regularity of the directed functioning of self-managed systems, their functional invariance in many parameters predetermines the objective necessity of the transition from
simple physical interaction with the environment to such a functional interaction, in which the system changes its state in accordance with some criterion, its internal goal. This gives rise to a special objective pattern of "decision-making", the choice of behavior of highly organized functioning systems. These systems arose before the advent of man, and their features served as the material foundation on which consciousness could arise.
The objective necessity of the choice of behavior does not exclude chance in the course of the choice itself. What are the sources of such randomness? To answer this question, it suffices to analyze the act of elementary choice.
The initial goal, or internal reason, of the choice is not random, since it expresses some kind of need for a self-governing system (this does not exclude the possibility of the stochastic formation of one or another non-basic need and, accordingly, an internal goal random for a self-governing system). The external reason for the choice can be necessary (as a natural external condition for a given self-governing system of its functioning) and random (as a forest fire happens to be accidental for forest dwellers).
If an external cause is random for a self-regulating system, then the choice of behavior is still necessary for the continuation of functioning in "unexpected" conditions and is random to the extent of the randomness of the external cause itself. Further, two real possibilities of goal-fulfillment, which a self-governing system (its subsystem or element) has at its disposal, with an elementary choice, can be equivalent and unequal.
Equivalent we will call such differences
different real possibilities, which, after turning them into reality, give one and the same result. For example, if the elevator has two cabins, then with the same success you can go to the desired floor in any of these cabins. You can quench your thirst by choosing any of the two glasses with various soft drinks. You can satisfy your hunger with any of two favorite dishes. You can get home by any of the two equal paths, etc.
We shall call non-equivalent such different real possibilities which, after their transformation into reality, lead to different results. This means that, by choosing a less “strong” opportunity, the self-governing system realizes the original goal, but not as fully as if it had chosen a stronger opportunity. So, for example, a fox can catch a field mouse or a hare. She will choose the second possibility as more "strong" in the sense of more fully achieving the original goal - satisfying hunger.
The choice of equivalent possibilities is completely random. All such possibilities lead to one thing; and the same result, and the system is completely indifferent which of these possibilities to turn into reality. If only one of these possibilities were left, the result would be the same. But allow me, the reader will ask, it was said above that the necessary condition for the choice should be the existence of at least two possibilities for achieving goals. It turns out that in essence, with equivalent possibilities, there is no choice? And yet we will answer that there is a choice.
With two equivalent possibilities, some possibility must be turned into reality, otherwise the transition from goal-setting to goal-realization will not take place. What is the opportunity to implement
wat? Yes, any, only it is necessary to turn it into reality. But in order to turn any possibility into reality, one must nevertheless stop at some particular possibility, i.e., perform the operation of choice.
Further, the concept of equivalent possibilities is not the same as the concept of equal possibilities. Identity of equivalent possibilities never happens because of their difference in something (if there is no such difference, at least spatially, then this means that there is only one possibility). So, in our examples of equivalent possibilities, there were differences between the right and left elevator cabins, differences in the taste of drinks and dishes, differences in the roads that go around the square on the right and left.
Equivalent possibilities are not identical, but after turning them into reality, the same result occurs: we rise to the desired floor, quench our thirst and hunger, and get home at a certain hour. And finally, the transformation of any of the equivalent possibilities into reality is a transition to a new quality - a transition from the original goal to the realized goal, from the anticipatory display of reality to reality itself, from the probability of possibility to the certainty of fact. All this allows us to conclude that in the presence of many equivalent real possibilities for achieving goals, it is necessary to “make a decision”, make a choice, without which none of these equivalent possibilities will turn into reality.
With unequal real opportunities for achieving goals, the tendency for a self-governing system to choose the most “strong” opportunity manifests itself as a necessity inherent in all self-government processes. This necessity somewhat limits the randomness of the choice, since it disappears
the indifference of the system to the quality of one or another real possibility, as is the case with equivalent possibilities. The need to choose the strongest option does not mean that a self-governing system always chooses the strongest option. Sometimes the system errs in not discerning the actual "strength" of a real opportunity, and may accidentally choose a less "strong" opportunity.
Conclusions about the ratio of randomness and necessity in an elementary choice can be extended to a complex choice. At the same time, it should be taken into account that the specific gravity of randomness with a complex choice is higher, since in the complex of external reasons the probability of the appearance of one or several external reasons for the choice random for a self-governing system is much higher. The probability of setting random goals along with the necessary goals is also much higher. A set of unequal possibilities, consisting of more than two elements, creates the basis for an increase in the proportion of randomness in attempts by the system to choose the strongest possibility.
Increasing the proportion of randomness with the complication of choice creates additional difficulties in the "decision making" procedure.
Even an elementary choice has its own specific difficulties. Here is how P. K. Anokhin describes the process of choosing one of two feeders for animals:
“... in some cases, animals, in response to a conditioned stimulus, sit in the middle of the pen for a long time. However, by the movement of the head, which turns alternately to the right, then to the left with obvious visual fixation of one or the other feeder, we can judge that there is an active selection of additional information and
that the stages of afferent synthesis have not ended. But at some point in this emphasized orienting-exploratory reaction, the animal quickly leaves its place and goes exactly to the feeder that is signaled by the given conditioned stimulus, and already here it waits for food to be supplied.
Probably, the same series of phenomena unfolds in the central nervous system of the animal and in those moments that have been called "ideas" or states of the "eureka" type.
But what about the animal? Let each of us remember how long he hesitates when choosing a second course, when only two (and even unloved) dishes appear on the dining room menu.
In the same way, artificial self-governing systems can fall into a "dead position" when each of two equivalent possibilities is equally displayed by the system's receptors. In such cases, it is necessary to add another "portion of chance" in order to incline the system to one or another possibility or to foresee a mechanism, a kind of time relay that does not allow the selection procedure to drag on and forcibly decides the issue in favor of the "left" or "right" real possibility. goal realization.
More significant difficulties arise when choosing from two possibilities of different "strength", especially when they are alternative. Let us recall the torment of Hamlet, who decided the question of his whole future life, or the torment of Pushkin's Mary, when she had to answer Mazepa's insidious question about who is dearer to her: father or husband? Weak in spirit, Maria left the solution to this issue to Mazepa himself.
"P.K. Anokhin. Biology and neurophysiology of the conditioned reflex, p. 230.
It is difficult to choose between two unequal possibilities. But it is incredibly difficult to choose from a large
the number of such possibilities. It is impossible to describe these difficulties more or less completely, since their specificity depends on the individual characteristics of the “decision-making” self-governing system, on the nature and number of external causes and initial goals of choice, on the quantity and quality of real opportunities for achieving goals.
At the same time, several common ones can be pointed out. of all self-managed systems of choice difficulties.
The first difficulty is the need for some kind of compromise. The fact is that it is rarely possible to arrange unequal possibilities in a certain row, at one end of which is the "weakest" and at the other the most "strong" possibility in all respects. Given that there are, as a rule, several external reasons and goals for choice, each of the unequal real possibilities in relation to some of these goals is inferior to them in some way. Therefore, in order to make the choice "optimal" in relation to all internal goals and external causes, one has to sacrifice the most "strong" possibilities in relation to individual goals and choose a compromise possibility that is not so "strong" in relation to each of the original goals, but and not so "weak", at least in relation to the main initial goals.
Let's explain this with a simple everyday example. Suppose someone likes to eat delicious food. He is hungry, has at the moment a small amount of money. This money can be spent on a meager portion of some delicacy. At the same time, someone will experience gastronomic pleasure, but remain hungry. With the same money you can buy a large portion
oatmeal. Food will not bring joy, but satiety will be complete. Someone decides to take a cutlet and eats it with gusto and is still thinking about an additive. This decision will be a compromise. The real opportunity used in this case will be quite “strong” in relation to gastronomic requests, the desire to satisfy hunger and the amount of money that was available.
Every second, living systems have to "solve" hundreds and thousands of even more complex tasks of finding a compromise when choosing the most "universal" real possibility of achieving goals. Social systems are faced with the need to solve production and economic problems, which are often tasks of choosing behavior in accordance with thousands of external causes and hundreds of thousands of initial goals and no less real unequal opportunities for their implementation. Suffice it to recall the modern range of goods and services, without which society can no longer live and develop.
Compromise when choosing a real possibility of goal-fulfillment contributes to the strengthening of the role of chance in "decision making". This happens because the choice also begins to depend on the randomness of the combination of certain properties of specific real possibilities.
Difficulties in compromise give rise to difficulties in limiting the original goal in the selection process. When making a compromise decision, i.e., choosing not the most “strong” real possibility in relation to all its leading initial goals, a self-governing system is objectively forced to put up with the fact that at the very beginning of the choice it already limits the initial goals, since it predetermines their incomplete implementation.
The limitation of the original goals at the very beginning of the choice, in turn, creates difficulties in finding the limits of the limitation, beyond which the original goal itself and goal-fulfillment disappear, as such, turning into a trivial external physical infliction. In essence, even a slight limitation of the original goal leads to its modernization, to the replacement of a new original goal, "fitted" to the conditions of goal implementation at its current stage. This was discussed in detail in the previous chapter.
Modernizing the original goals changes the situation in which the act of choice takes place. We have to take into account such external factors that previously did not influence the choice, but when the initial goal changes, they acquire some significance. Modernization of the original goal often leads to a change in the set of real possibilities for achieving goals, since some possibilities for changing the state of a self-governing system lose the rank of real possibilities for achieving goals, while other possibilities for changing the state of a self-governing system are elevated to this rank. We have to re-find a compromise opportunity, and in connection with this, again modernize the original goal, and so on until its basis is realized.
Difficulties of choice bring to the fore the problem of the adequacy of choice.
Adequacy we will call the relation of structural or some other correspondence of a thing or phenomenon to another thing or phenomenon associated with the first general process. This correspondence can be the correspondence of a display to its original, a consequence to its cause, a transition from one state to another, a law of change in a thing, etc. Correspondence is always asymmetrical in the sense that it differs in direction in one direction.
side: something corresponds to something, the secondary corresponds to the primary. Correspondence presupposes the non-identity of the corresponding to the corresponding. Therefore, correspondence is never complete in the absolute sense of the word.
The term "adequacy" is often used to refer to the best fit possible under given conditions. Indeed, in the simplest cases it makes no sense to introduce the representation of the completeness of the correspondence. Thus, for example, the secretion of saliva in a hungry dog at the sight of food most fully corresponds to this stimulus, and there is no need to speak about the degree of adequacy of this phenomenon. But in more complex cases, many gradations of correspondence are found (from the most minimal to the most complete possible under given conditions). This circumstance encourages us to consider adequacy as a changing attitude, depending on many random circumstances. Therefore, it seems useful to introduce a measure of compliance, calling it the degree of adequacy.
As for the choice of behavior, it may be more or less adequate in relation to the original goal. The degree of adequacy of the choice of behavior will be determined by the degree of adequacy of the realized goal to the original goal. The greatest correspondence of the realized goal to the original one will be in the event that the choice of the most "strong" real possibility of goal realization is carried out. Therefore, the degree of adequacy of the choice depends on the "strength" of the chosen real possibility of goal realization.
Increasing the adequacy of the choice of the initial goal is limited by an essential circumstance arising from the essence of the target infliction. The choice must be to some extent adequate to the external reason for the choice. Otherwise, the system becomes
there is no “voluntaristic” one and runs the risk of quickly degrading due to the mismatch of its functioning with external conditions.
The need for a double correspondence of the choice - the original goal and the external reason - lowers the degree of adequacy of the choice as a whole. The degree of adequacy of a complex choice is even lower, when there are many external reasons and several initial goals are set.
Timeliness of choice is of great importance. We will call timely such a choice of behavior that leads to goal realization before the external cause reaches its natural consequence, which can be expressed in deformations or even death of a self-governing system. With an untimely choice, the original goal is eliminated from the process of causing and the self-managed system loses the activity of the functioning system.
It should be emphasized that a less adequate, but timely choice of behavior is preferable to a highly adequate, but untimely choice, since in the first case the achievement of goals is brought to an end, and in the second case it can be violated even before its completion. In fact, untimely "high adequacy" is a kind of complete inadequacy.
In the almost infinite variety of choices, two main types can be distinguished: equifinal choice and polyfinal choice.
The equifinal choice is carried out by all equifinal systems", or, what is the same, homeostats. The essence of the equifinal choice is that in response to the action of various external causes or one
" See L. Bertalanffy. General Systems Theory - Critical Review. - "Studies in General Systems Theory", p. 43,
For some changing external reason, a self-managing system chooses the same value of some of its parameters. In other words, the equifinal choice is a procedure for maintaining the dynamic balance of a self-governing system with the external environment in terms of some (some) parameter, the implementation of the functional invariance of the system in accordance with the criterion expressing this invariance. In a sense, the equifinal choice can be called auto-generation of the main property of a self-governing system - the ability to maintain its integrity as a functioning system.
The essential feature of the equifinal choice is its obligatory periodic or aperiodic renewability, in a way "discrete continuity". In principle, equifinality is impossible with a single act of elementary choice. It manifests itself in a series of acts of elementary (or complex) choice following one after another, each of which leads to the same result. A single act of choice torn from this series is a kind of “mono-final” choice, since in response to the action of one external cause or one complex of external causes acting simultaneously, one specific state of the system is selected. An equifinal choice is a process of transition from one act of a single choice to another, and the equifinality of a choice can only be judged if at least two choices lead to the same result.
With an equifinal choice, the realized goal is basically unambiguously related to the original goal (if we do not take into account minor discrepancies within predetermined limits) and ambiguously - to the external reason for the choice. For example, not-
interrupted balance during the movement of a four-legged animal is uniquely associated with the corresponding initial goal or functional invariant of the organism and is ambiguously associated with various external causes that disturb this balance (shocks from tree branches, air pressure during wind, uneven soil, etc.).
Outwardly, the equifinal choice looks like a process of causing the same physical effect by different physical reasons, which is inexplicable without involving the conceptual apparatus of cybernetics and general systems theory, primarily the concepts of “goal”, “choice”, “feedback”. We remind you that objective an external sign of choice and in this case is the ambiguity of the connection between the result of the choice and the external cause that caused it.
The activity of a self-governing system with an equifinal choice is several orders of magnitude higher than the activity of the reaction of any physical object when it interacts with other objects. The transition from a physical reaction to the simplest equifinal choice is a radical qualitative leap in the evolution of matter.
At the same time, compared with the second type of choice, the activity of the equifinal choice is limited by two circumstances. First, it is limited by the constancy of its result. With a significant change in external conditions, the constancy of the choice result can not in all cases ensure the survival of a self-governing system. So, for example, during a fire, no thermoregulation of the body will ensure its safety; secondly, the equifinal choice is limited by the limits of the change in the state of a self-governing system.
"See G. Klaus. Cybernetics and Philosophy, p. 310.
In order to maintain a dynamic balance with the external environment in terms of certain parameters, a self-governing system must change other parameters of its processes. But it can change them within certain limits in accordance with its material and energy resources. A warm-blooded animal in unusual conditions of long and severe frost cannot maintain its normal body temperature for a long time and dies from hypothermia if it does not use the second type of choice.
The equifinal choice can be simple or complex. A simple equifinal choice is made through a series of successive elementary choices. A complex equifinal choice is made through a series of single complex choices, when complexes of external causes operate and complexes of initial goals are set.
The prerequisite for the equifinal choice is the experience accumulated by the self-regulating system, mainly as a result of phylogenetic learning. In most cases, the equifinal choice is made without the participation of consciousness. The experience of such a choice is often clothed in the form of unconditioned reflexes that are inherited by the genetic code in self-reproducing self-governing systems or provided in the program of behavior of artificial self-governing systems.
In higher animals, and in man in particular, the equifinal choice in many cases is based on individual experience acquired in the process of ontogenetic learning.
The equifinal choice is made by all self-governing systems, no matter how complex they may be. It can be assumed that this type of choice arose on our planet before the polyfinal
and served as a natural basis for all other varieties of choice. The following arguments can be given in favor of this assumption.
Firstly, the equifinal choice is the principle of homeostasis and constitutes its functional basis, and, consequently, the basis of the functional invariance of self-governing systems. Since functional invariance is one of the main, leading principles of self-government, no self-governing system can do without an equifinal choice.
Secondly, since the equifinal choice is a process of maintaining functional invariance, it is a goal-forming factor of a self-governing system, a process that expresses the needs and direction of functioning.
Thirdly, the equifinal choice not only plays the role of a goal-forming factor, but at the same time serves as a reason for goal-preservation in the process of functioning of a self-governing system, since it is a choice, as a result of which the disturbed functional invariant of the system is restored.
Fourthly, the equifinal choice is included in the structure of the polyfinal choice as its necessary element.
As a rule, the process of equifinal choice proceeds more fully if the self-governing system has a stable (for the entire duration of the process) set of unequal real possibilities for achieving goals.
The need for a stable set of unequal possibilities is explained by a change in the external cause during the transition from one act of choice to another in the process of equifinal choice as a whole. In order to in different external conditions and under
Since the initial goal of all successively implemented acts of choice is to obtain the same result of goal realization, it is necessary at each stage of the process to choose the real possibility of that force that would provide the required result for a given external reason.
Let's draw a small analogy with an algebraic equation. Suppose we need to make an equation of four quantities. Two quantities (the initial goal and the result of goal realization) are obviously constant. One value (external cause) is obviously variable. What character should be the third value (the real possibility of goal-fulfillment)? It must also be variable (the real possibility of a changing "force"). Otherwise, the equation cannot be written.
Even the simplest household refrigerator, designed to make an equifinal choice, to maintain a more or less constant temperature in the working chamber with fluctuations in the outside air temperature, must choose from three unequal possibilities: a) remain inactive, b) turn on the compressor, c) turn off the compressor.
In relation to the class of self-governing systems, the equifinal choice is universal. It is possible that the universality of the equifinal choice served as an unwitting reason that in the literature on control theory and general systems theory, the second main type of choice, the polyfinal choice, which is of exceptional importance in the functioning of highly organized self-managing systems, has not found a worthy place.
The essence of the polyfinal choice is that a self-managing system can respond to the action of one external cause with several options.
behavior in such a way that each of these options somehow corresponds to the external reason and original purpose of choice 1.
The prerequisites for the polyfinal choice are already contained in the equifinal choice, at the moment of choosing one of the unequal real possibilities for achieving goals. The different “strength” of possibilities predetermines the unevenness of the result of their transformation into reality. There is nothing in this that contradicts the principle of equifinality, since equifinality itself is never absolute.
The choice becomes completely polyfinal when, in response to the action of one external reason, the self-governing system sequentially chooses from three sets: first, from the many different options for the main initial goal, one option; secondly, from many different subsets of real possibilities for changing the state of the system, one subset, which is a set of real possibilities for implementing the selected version of the original goal; thirdly, from the last set, one real possibility of goal-fulfillment.
Consider a simple example of a polyfinal choice. Suppose a dog attacked a cat. At the same time, the main initial goal of the cat is to maintain its safety. In this case, the cat can choose any of two options for this main goal: a) avoid a fight with the dog; b) "teach" the aggressor. For the implementation of the first version of the original goal, many of the following real possibilities are suitable: simply run away in one of the directions; climb into the
"See B. S. Ukraintsev Categories "activity" and "goal" in the light of the basic concepts of cybernetics - "Questions of Philosophy", 1967, No. 5, pp. 62 - 63.
accessible shelter for the dog (under the closet); jump on a tall object (the same closet). The transformation of any of these possibilities into reality will lead to the realization of the first version of the original goal and will correspond to an external reason - the danger of a dog attack.
To implement the second version of the original goal, you can: take a threatening defensive posture and thereby cool the dog's ardor; to counterattack a dog, which, as a rule, cannot withstand the furious onslaught of a hissing and scratching creature.
The implementation of different variants of the original goal leads to different results under the action of the same external cause. The first result is a simple rescue without risk, but without the guarantee that the dog will not repeat the attack in the future. The second result is rescue with the risk of being a battered dog, but with a guarantee that the “trained” dog will not repeat such an act.
An essential feature of the polyfinal choice is that it is carried out in the form of a single act. This is a "one-time" choice designed to solve the current problem. Its result cannot be planned in advance, as the result of an equifinal choice is planned. With a polyfinal choice, the realized goal is ambiguously related to both the external reason for the choice and the main goal of the choice.
The polyfinal choice differs from the equifinal one in significantly greater activity. This type of choice is free from such restrictions of the equifinal choice as the constancy of the choice result and the limits of change in the internal state of a self-governing system. It allows you to change the external cause in accordance with the needs of the self-managed
my system by changing its position in relation to the external environment.
In contrast to the equifinal, the polyfinal choice is always more complicated. This is due to the following circumstances. First, at least one process of equifinal choice always takes place in the composition of the elements of the polyfinal choice structure; secondly, the polyfinal choice is composed of successive choices from at least three different sets mentioned above.
A polyfinal choice can be made by realizing an unequal possibility. But it can also be realized by the realization of an equivalent possibility of goal-fulfillment. This is because of the four main elements of the polyfinal choice (external cause, goal, real possibility, realized goal), two elements are variable (option of the original goal, realized goal), one is constant (external reason), and the fourth (real possibility) can be both constant (equivalent possibility) and variable (unequal possibility).
The experience accumulated by the self-managed system also serves as a prerequisite for the polyfinal choice.
Only in contrast to the equifinal choice, the polyfinal choice is mainly based on the individual experience of a self-governing system, acquired by it in the process of ontogenetic learning.
Concluding this chapter, let us return to the questions of freedom, patterns and essence of the choice of behavior of all self-governing systems.
In his third antinomy, I. Kant considers two opposite theses. According to the first thesis, it is impossible to deduce all phenomena in the world from causality “according to the laws of nature”. To explain phenomena, one must also admit free causality.
(Causalitat durch Freiheit) ". According to the second thesis, everything happens in the world "according to the laws of nature."
From the proofs of the first and second theses offered by Kant and from the content of his other works, it can be concluded that the “laws of nature” mean the laws of physics, or rather, mechanics (considering the time in which Kant lived, this is not surprising), which is opposed to freedom in the transcendental sense.
Basically, for our topic, the Kantian justification of the first thesis is of interest. The proof is that "according to the laws of nature" everything that happens presupposes a previous state, after which it inevitably follows "according to the rule." But the antecedent state must itself have come into being and had its cause, and this cause an even earlier cause. If everything happens “according to the laws of nature”, then there is always only a “subordinate, and not the first principle, and therefore there is no completeness of the series at all on the side of causes arising from each other. Meanwhile, the law of nature consists precisely in this, that nothing happens without a sufficiently determined a priori cause. Therefore, the assertion that any causality is possible only “according to the laws of nature” contradicts itself, and it is necessary “to admit causality due to which
"See I. Kant. Works in six volumes, vol. 3. M., 1964, p. 418. In the Russian edition of Hegel's Science of Logic (1939), the last phrase of this thesis of Kant is quoted in a slightly different translation. "In order to explain them, it is necessary to admit, in addition, a causality acting through freedom? (Hegel. Works, vol. VI, p. freedom"). The later translation ("it is still necessary to admit free causality") seems to be too free and vague in meaning.
2 Ibid., p. 420.
a swarm of something occurs in such a way that its cause is not determined in turn by any other antecedent cause according to necessary laws, in other words, it is necessary to admit the absolute spontaneity of causes - [the ability] of itself to start this or that series of phenomena, continuing further according to the laws of nature, has become be transcendental freedom, without which, even in the natural course of things, the successive series of phenomena on the side of causes can never be completed.
According to the proof of the second thesis, freedom, i.e., a special kind of causality, according to which events could arise in the world (the ability to unconditionally begin a certain state and a number of its consequences), “is contrary to the law of causality and represents such a combination of successive states of effective causes, in which no unity of experience is possible, and which, consequently, does not exist in any experience...”2. This proof emphasizes that "freedom (independence) from the laws of nature is, it is true, liberation from coercion, but also the possibility not to be guided by any rules"3.
In the theses of the third antinomy and in the system of their proofs, Kant essentially postulated arbitrary assumptions that were considered true in his time. Among these postulated arbitrary assumptions, one should include the proposition that there are only one laws of nature - mechanical laws. the position of continuity in the change of states (without jumps), the position of the identity of causality and objective law, and, finally, the position of non-
"I. Kant. Works in six volumes, v. 3, p. 420
2 Ibid., p. 421.
Compatibility of the concepts of "spontaneity" and "objective regularity". To this must be added the idealistic deformation of some fruitful thoughts.
Why did we state this antinomy? Because it is inaccurate, but still a reflection in logical constructions of an objectively existing dialectical contradiction, spontaneously resolved by nature at every stage of the emergence and development of life on Earth and at every stage of the process of functioning of any living organism. This is the deep content of this antinomy.
M. Bunge is right when he emphasizes that the problem of causality is an ontological and not a logical question, since it refers to the features of reality and can be analyzed using logic, but cannot be reduced to logical terms.
If we clean both Kantian theses and their proofs from idealistic layers (interpretation of freedom as independence from the objective laws of nature, as the ability not to be guided by any rules - objective laws, as transcendence in the sense of absolute opposition to all laws of nature, etc.) , then we are faced with meaningful moments that cannot be ignored when considering the problem of freedom of choice and its objective regularity.
First of all, it should be noted the idea of the possibility and necessity under certain conditions of the existence of a special kind of causality, acting "through freedom", when the ability appears.
1 See M. Bunge. Causality. The place of the principle of causality in modern science, p. 273.
to begin one or another series of phenomena, continuing further according to the laws of physical causality. It is interesting and fruitful to apply the idea of Epicurus about a spontaneous change in the direction of the atom, the idea of spontaneity in the development of the problem of freedom, although Kant calls this spontaneity of a new cause, i.e., the ability to start a new series of phenomena by itself, absolute.
Essentially, Kant speaks of spontaneity in the sense of self-causing. Such spontaneity is relatively independent of the action of external factors and their objective laws. At the same time, it is itself a manifestation of the internal objective laws of certain phenomena and therefore cannot be absolutely free from all the "rules" dictated by nature.
Freedom in a broad sense, according to M. Bunge, does not have to be conscious, it is not a residue that does not obey the laws, but is a natural self-determination that exists at any level of reality. From Bunge's point of view, the highest degrees of freedom are possessed by a person who has the freedom to choose between alternatives given from outside, the ability to create conditions, and, finally, the freedom of creativity.
We are not sure that the concept of “freedom” can be extended to all phenomena in the world, although we agree with the idea that freedom should not necessarily be a derivative of consciousness, since “making a decision” and choosing behavior within the framework of some kind of relative freedom can all self-governing systems, including those without consciousness.
Now back to the essence of behavior choice.
"See M. Bunge. Causality. The place of the principle of causality in modern science, pp. 211 - 212.
self-governing system. We could give several characteristics of this essence, each of which can only claim the role of a particular definition of self-causation of self-governing systems in the course of their functioning.
The choice of behavior by a self-governing system can be called a jump, a spontaneous transition of the system from one physical causal chain to another physical causal chain. We are talking about a jump according to the internal criterion of the system - its initial goal, a jump from an external causal chain, in which a self-governing system is involved, to its internal causal chain, leading to events that are pre-planned and necessary for the further functioning of the system.
Thus, the choice of behavior can be considered a leap made by breaking the external causal chain and forming instead of it a new, already internal causal chain for a self-governing system. This leap is made in accordance with the objective laws of external causation and mainly the immanent objective laws of the functioning of the self-governing system itself.
It would also be legitimate to call the choice of behavior of a self-governing system directed spontaneity, which has an objectively regular nature. Such directed spontaneity requires for its description certain categories of dialectical materialism (possibility and reality, probability and certainty, leap, external and internal cause, law, activity, and some others). It also requires the conceptual apparatus of cybernetics and general systems theory, and, when considering living systems, the conceptual apparatus of biology.
We call this spontaneity directed because the result of the spontaneous transition of the system to a new state is predetermined by the initial goal, which is a generalization of the experience accumulated by a self-controlled system, leading the display of the future necessary for it.
"Decision making" can be characterized as a form of self-causation, since the choice of behavior is always a decisive step in the functioning of a self-governing system, expressing its relatively independent behavior from the external environment.
Since the original goal serves as an internal criterion for "decision making", the choice of behavior performs the function of anticipating future events. But it does not passively copy the original target. If the latter anticipates the probable behavior of a self-governing system, then the choice, being a transition from a real possibility to reality, introduces certainty. The act of choice, as it were, “programs” a certain behavior of a self-governing system; it limits the set of possible transitions of the system to different states by a transition to one, quite definite state.
Prior to the choice, a self-governing system is relatively free to make one or another “decision” within the framework of the correspondence of all these “decisions” not only to the original goal, but also to the external reason for the choice. But as soon as the system "made a decision", made a choice, it immediately loses the relative freedom that it had before "making a decision" in relation to this choice. Freedom at the beginning of goal-realization decreases towards its end and turns into lack of freedom of certainty of a fact - a realized goal, which in turn opens up new real possibilities and a new relative freedom of subsequent choice.
The boundaries of the relative freedom of "decision making" are the objective laws of changes in the external environment and the functioning of a self-governing system. No matter how free a self-governing system is in choosing its behavior, it cannot overstep the result of the action of objective laws.
At the same time, there is a real possibility of various combinations of the actions of objective laws in such a way that different results are obtained, including those necessary for a self-governing system. Such combinations are random. Therefore, randomness is one of the prerequisites for freedom of choice of behavior. Apparently, on the basis of random combinations, separate acts of “right-choices” of emerging and still very primitive self-governing systems spontaneously arose at the very beginning of the evolution of life with its costs.
As the organization of self-governing systems grows, the directed search for the most favorable combination of the actions of objective laws becomes increasingly important for the system. The progress of the organization of self-governing systems is based on the transformation of search into a planned organization of internal and external conditions, under which the action of objective conditions leads to the results necessary for the system.
In turn, this plannedness turns into conscious actions of a person to transform his natural and social conditions of life in accordance with his goals and on the basis of the cognizable laws of the development of the objective world.
The freedom to choose behavior is a function of the level of organization of a self-governing system. The least organized self-managed systems enjoy minimal freedom of choice. They
are capable of the simplest equifinal choice and do not have a significant impact on the external conditions of their functioning. More highly organized self-governing systems, capable of combining equifinal choice with polyfinal choice, have much greater freedom of "decision making" because they change the external conditions of their functioning.
The greatest freedom of choice is enjoyed by people of the communist formation, who make decisions with knowledge of the matter on the basis of the cognized objective laws of the development of nature, society and thinking.
The phenomenon of control is associated with the interaction of material systems. Usually, the management process is defined as a specific interaction of various material formations organized in a special way: managing and managed. Outside the interaction of material systems, control cannot arise. This circumstance does not exclude the great role of ideal phenomena in higher forms of control.
The management process is determined by the conjugation of the governing and controlled material formations. These formations are selective towards their "partners". A specific controlling material formation becomes such only in conjunction with its controlled formation, and, conversely, a controlled material formation exhibits the property of controllability in interaction only with its controlling formation. Without interaction with their “partner”, the controlling and controlled material formations are reduced to the level of simple physical systems.
The management process lies in the fact that the manager controls the managed and his influences.
actions induce the controlled. Change its parameters to achieve certain results. "In turn, the controlled contributes to the functioning of the manager, influencing him and changing some of his parameters.
For management processes, it is typical to obtain results from a controlled material formation that cannot be directly achieved by a controlling material formation. Usually, the results of the management process significantly exceed the scale of the funds spent by the managing material entity in material and energy terms on the act of management itself. As a rule, the act of control is the strengthening of the actions of the controlling material entity at the expense of energy and other resources of the controlled material entity. The costs of material resources for the management process are justified in those cases when they are less than such costs that go to the achievement of a predetermined result by the controlled manager.
Since the ability to control and the property of controllability of the corresponding material formations become a reality in the process of their interaction, there is every reason to consider the control and the controlled in their inseparable unity, as subsystems of a certain system, which in essence is self-managed system. Within the framework of such a system, the interaction of the control and controlled subsystems acts as a process self-government. In this case, it does not matter whether the control and controlled subsystems are separated in space and time or not. Important
" Cm. A. I. Berg. On some problems of cybernetics. - "Questions of Philosophy", 1960, No. 5.
the fact that these subsystems interact within the framework of a holistic education according to certain laws and outside these frameworks lose the ability to control and the property of controllability.
By origin, self-governing systems are divided into natural and artificial. Natural self-governing systems include all living systems (presumably starting from viruses and ending with plants and animals) and social systems. The number of artificial self-governing systems includes relatively autonomously operating cybernetic devices created by man, technical systems such as workshops and automatic factories, space stations, etc.
Each specific process of self-management is distinguished by unique individual features. At the same time, all processes of self-government proceed on the basis of general principles. What are these principles?
In order to answer this question, let us consider the material prerequisites for the emergence of self-governing processes and those features of self-governing systems that distinguish them from all other material systems.
The main material prerequisites for the emergence of self-management processes are contained in the interaction of physical objects. There are no isolated objects in the material world. Therefore, we can only ideally represent the interaction of just two objects, that is, direct interaction. In fact, more than two objects are always involved in all interactions. Therefore, real interactions are always indirect. This means that the mutual action of any two objects participating in a particular interaction is always mediated by other objects also participating in this interaction.
The mediation of interaction determines many of its properties. ", which serve as material prerequisites and conditions for the emergence of interactions of a special kind - processes of self-government.
In nature, mediated interactions are often encountered that are very similar to a single act of control, since "weak" interactions of some objects can determine and determine the fate of "strong" interactions of other objects.
Let's look at a few examples. Suppose there is an unstable system consisting of many interacting elements - a large accumulation of snow on a steep mountainside. If, under the influence of weak external influences, a certain critical number of these elements (snowflakes) changes its state, then the balance of the system as a whole is disturbed and the entire system passes into a new state in which all its elements become more stable. So, a weak sound or a slight mechanical shock (from a gust of wind) causes an avalanche that sweeps away entire villages and towns in its path. All chain reactions (explosions) can serve as examples of such interactions.
In the cases described, weak interactions of some objects cause strong interactions of other objects. We will call such weak interactions launchers.
There are such weak interactions of objects that act as a regulator of the direction and intensity of strong interactions of other objects. One stuck branch can lead to the formation of a shoal and a change in the course of the river. With a little effort, you can, by pushing or lowering the
" Cm. B. S. Ukraintsev. Display in inanimate nature. M, 1969, pp. 9 - 58.
elephant, increase or decrease water flow in a large channel. Negligible in voltage and strength, alternating electric currents in the oscillatory circuit of a radio receiver connected to the grid of an electron tube cause changes in the anode current, which is much larger in voltage and strength.
In these cases, weak interactions of some objects change the conditions under which strong interactions of other objects occur and, therefore, change the intensity or direction of strong interactions in accordance with their law of change. We will call this kind of weak interactions modulating.
All of these interactions are similar to an elementary act of control. This gave rise to some popularizers of the ideas of cybernetics to look for patterns of control in inanimate nature. As confirmation of the idea of the existence of control in the world of physical phenomena, the influence of a stone accidentally lying in the path of an avalanche, which changes the direction of its movement, was cited, etc.
Although the considered triggering and modulating interactions play an important role in the processes of self-government (in the following chapters we will show that information causality and target self-causation are based on this type of interaction), they are still not acts of control in themselves. In inanimate nature, these interactions arise spontaneously, irregularly and express random and external relations of objects. Sporadically occurring in inanimate nature, the enhancement of action during triggering and modulating interactions is not yet one of the basic principles of interaction - principle of amplification what it becomes in the processes of self-management.
The interaction of objects in inanimate nature is
performed according to the principles of least action and greatest probability. According to the first principle, for a given class of compared movements of a material system, the movement that is caused by the smallest value of a physical quantity, called action, will be real. This principle can be reformulated as the principle of the least work that is expended on the actual movement of the system.
So, for example, a stream makes its own channel only along such a trajectory, which is associated with the least expenditure of work when the water flows. An electric discharge in air (lightning) follows a path in the direction of least electrical resistance, where the air is most ionized, etc.
According to the second principle (highest probability), all physical closed systems move from a statistically less probable state to a more probable state, i.e. from greater order and organization to less order. This reduces the fraction of the energy of the system that can be converted into work. An irreversible process of "depreciation" of energy takes place, expressed by an increase in physical entropy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics.
Both of these principles are inapplicable for describing the interaction of elements of a self-governing system, self-governing systems with the external environment and with each other, if we consider the process as a whole. If we take the individual elements of the process of self-government, then they can be described using physical concepts, including the principles mentioned.
So, for example, a squirrel sitting on the lower branch of a spruce saw a mushroom at the foot of a neighboring tree, instead of going down to the ground and running after it.
the shortest way, prefers to climb higher, and then, jumping onto the branches of a neighboring tree, go down for prey. Each element of the squirrel's behavior can be described in strict accordance with physical laws: so many calories were expended on the rise, so many units of force were applied to give the necessary acceleration when jumping, etc. However, to answer the question why the squirrel made such an uneconomical path, why did it first move from a more probable to a less probable state, physics alone cannot.
In the physical interaction of objects between them, there is an exchange of matter and energy. When interacting with the external environment, a self-governing system also participates in exchange processes. However, the nature of such exchange processes is already different. All self-governing systems belong to the class of open systems ". They actively extract energy from the external environment in a larger amount than is necessary to compensate for the growth of entropy caused by irreversible processes within a self-governing system. Thus, they ensure regular interaction of their elements and subsystems.
Using the energy of the external environment allows self-governing systems to be, in a sense, anti-entropic. During the existence of such systems, their entropy is maintained at the same level or even decreases from time to time if the system is sufficiently highly organized and capable of progressive development.
Since self-governing systems inevitably wear out, the tendency for entropy to increase eventually wins out over the tendency for entropy to decrease.
1 L. Bertalanffy. General Systems Theory: A Critical Review - "Studies in General Systems Theory". M., 1969, p. 37.
ropi. The anti-entropy nature of self-controlled systems does not conflict with the second law of thermodynamics, since when these systems function as subsystems of more general systems (environment - self-controlled system), the second law also applies to them. The entropy of a more general system, including the external environment and self-governing systems as its subsystems, always increases.
When interacting with the external environment, the self-governing system as a whole and some of its elements pass from less probable states to more probable states in some respect. In order for the self-management process not to be interrupted, the self-managing system must return to unlikely states. To do this, it uses the energy of the external environment, spending it to transfer some of its elements and subsystems into unlikely states.
If we consider a self-governing system as a whole, then the resumption and maintenance of unlikely states of its elements is the leading trend in the process of self-government. With the disappearance of this tendency, the self-governing system collapses and turns into a collection of simple physical systems. A. Szent-Györgyi showed this feature of self-governing systems using the example of differences between living and physical systems and, accordingly, between biological and physical approaches to the question: “Biology is the science of the incredible, and I think that in principle only statistically improbable reactions are essential for an organism . If metabolism were carried out as a result of a series of probable and thermodynamically spontaneous reactions, then we would burn out and the whole machine would stop, like a clock without a regulator. Reactions control-
This is because they are statistically improbable and can only occur due to specific mechanisms that can ensure their regulation. Thus, in a living organism, reactions become possible that seem impossible to a physicist, or, in any case, improbable.
The ability of self-controlled systems to move into unlikely states provides them with a large number of degrees of freedom and, due to this, high activity and maneuverability, which are many orders of magnitude higher than the activity of physical systems. The activity of the latter does not go beyond the dynamism of the response to external influences. Such a reaction is mainly determined by the intensity of the impact of an external factor, although in form it largely depends on the internal characteristics of the reacting object. The reaction of a physical system is reduced to counteracting an external action for it.
If the reaction of physical systems directly depends on the nature of external influences, then the active behavior of a self-governing system is relatively independent of the external environment and is largely determined by the immanent laws of the system.
The transition of a self-governing system to other states indirectly depends on changes in the external environment. Self-governing systems change their state in such a way as to preserve their integrity and certainty as functioning systems.
One of the leading principles of self-government is the principle of active self-propulsion based on the regular reproduction of unlikely states of the system and its elements due to the energy extracted from the external environment.
" A. Szent-Gyorgyi, Introduction to submolecular biology M., 1964, p. 17.
Self-governing systems combine the flexibility of the connections of elements, the continuous variability of their states with the stability of the flow of the main internal processes of the system or its parts. The mode of existence of self-governing systems is their functioning, that is, the preservation of their integrity and certainty, their separation from the environment through a continuous change in the state of the system as a whole and its individual parts and elements.
Self-governing systems separate themselves from the environment and do not allow it to absorb themselves by maintaining dynamic equilibrium with changing external conditions in accordance with principle of active balance or simple adaptation.
A simple adaptation does not lead to a change in the structure of the system. It consists in restructuring the internal processes of a self-governing system in such a way that its integrity is ensured when external conditions change within certain limits.
The restructuring of internal processes cannot go beyond some boundaries beyond which the integrity of the system is violated. The flexibility of connections cannot be excessive, i.e., such that the functional connection itself disappears and the system begins to disintegrate.
With a wide variety of forms, simple adaptation has its limits. If the results of the influence of the external environment exceed the possibility of a functional change in a self-governing system, then it dies.
Like any other adaptation, a simple adaptation is self-contradictory. The most complete adaptation is always acutely selective to certain conditions and, with a slight change in them, passes into its opposite,
Dynamic balance is expressed in the preservation of the values of the main parameters of the system. The functioning of self-governing systems is invariant within some limits of changing external conditions in the sense that some properties and characteristics of the system are mainly preserved through the variability of the state of its parts.
In contrast to the change in the state of physical systems forced by external factors, the functioning of self-governing systems is always internally aimed at achieving a certain result. And this direction of changing the state of a self-governing system is internally necessary and natural for it. The orientation of behavior is a factor in the stability of the functioning of a self-governing system or its functional invariant.
Each self-governing system has its own set of functional invariants that regulate and direct its behavior in such a way that its survival would be ensured within the limits of changes in the external environment specific to this system.
The survivability of a self-governing system can be called such a set of its states in which the system does not lose its integrity and does not stop its functioning. If the system spontaneously or under the pressure of changing external conditions does not go into a state beyond the boundaries of this set, then it survives. If, however, external conditions change so strongly that the system is forced to go into a state not covered by the aforementioned set, then it loses its integrity, i.e., dies as a self-governing system.
" Cm. W. Ross Ashby Introduction to cybernetics M, 1959, p. 109
The concepts of “survival”, “stability” and “functional invariant” can be brought into exact correspondence.” It makes sense to talk about the relative stability and functional invariants of a self-governing system only within the limits of its survival.
As examples of functional invariants, we point out the automatic maintenance of air pressure in the cabin of a passenger aircraft, the maintenance of a given course by an autopilot, the maintenance of body temperature in warm-blooded animals within certain limits, the maintenance of balance when animals and humans walk, etc.
Functional invariance, or planned orientation, of the behavior of self-governing systems is associated with their goal-setting activity. This will be discussed in detail in Chapter 6, but for now we note the common self-government process for all processes. goal setting principle.
A functioning, i.e. self-governing, system can be in the presence of some minimum variety of its elements and a variety of their connections and states2. A system consisting of the same elements or a small set of different elements cannot become self-governing. Therefore, one of the distinguishing (although not the main) features of self-regulating systems is the structural and functional diversity of their subsystems and elements, as well as a large number of real possibilities for changing any parameter of the system as a whole or each of its elements separately.
In order to survive, a self-managing system must be able to distinguish between external and its own
"See W. Ross Ashby. Introduction to Cybernetics, p. 280.
2 See ibid.
processes, navigate in external conditions and take into account all their changes, as well as constantly monitor and coordinate the process of self-government with a changing environment. For a self-governing system, the external environment is something largely independent of it, with which it must reckon and to which it must adapt in order not to perish. For this reason, self-managing systems must actively reflect changes in the external environment and the progress of their internal processes.
The Leninist theory of reflection shows that the property of reflection is inherent in all matter. "The process of reflection and all its forms, starting from the simplest in inanimate nature and ending with consciousness, arise during the interaction of material objects. The appearance of a reflection is associated with a change in one of the objects (displaying) as a result of an indirect impact on it of another object (displayed - the original).
Mapping is a process, the result of which is a more or less adequate reproduction of some features of the original in changing processes in the display object. The result of the mapping process - the mapping itself - is the product of the interaction of all the objects participating in it (including the intermediate ones). However, it is wrong to identify the display with the overall result of the interaction. The display process is a specific aspect of the interaction of the original with the display object. This side is connected only with the reproduction on a different soil and by other means of the features of the original. All os-
" Cm. V. I. Lenin. Poly. coll. cit., vol. 18, p. 91.
The real, which is also included in the overall result of the indirect interaction of the displayed and displaying objects, does not refer to the content of the display.
Display is a dialectical unity of opposites: the unity of the external (defined by the original content of the display) and internal (the form of change in the process of the display object). Therefore, the original is always primary and relatively independent of the display, and the display is secondary, derived from the original and depends on it under all conditions.
One way or another, the display is always connected with the response of the displayer to the influence of the original. However, the nature of this relationship undergoes a fundamental change in the transition from displaying by simple physical systems to displaying other “objects and themselves” by self-controlled systems.
When simple physical systems interact with objects of the material world, the display of the original merges with the reaction of the displaying object to the impact of the original. In this case, the mapping is one of the ordinary characteristics of the reaction, and its activity does not extend beyond the primitive activity of the reaction of the physical system itself.
So, for example, the radiation of the Sun heats the stone. The reaction of the stone is an increase in temperature and an increase in its volume. The fact of the existence of the Sun as a source of radiation is displayed by changing
by the determination of the stone's own process - by the difference in temperatures and volumes before and after irradiation. But this difference in temperature and volume is the reaction itself.
A different picture occurs when a self-governing system interacts with an object of the external environment - the original when displayed. Being a reproduction of the properties of the original, the display becomes differentiated and basically does not merge with the reaction, or rather, the behavior of the system, but acts as one of the regulators of this behavior. Even such a simple self-managing system, like a conventional refrigerator, differentially displays the ambient temperature.
The surface of the refrigerator either heats up or cools down, its geometric dimensions change. All this, of course, is part of the reaction of the refrigerator as a physical body. But these are only some of the many external environment mappings that have no effect on its behavior. And the behavior of the refrigerator is expressed in the fact that when the ambient temperature rises, it turns on the compressor more often in order to maintain the set low temperature inside the working chamber. When the ambient temperature drops, it turns on the compressor less often. The role of the regulator of the frequency of switching on the compressor is a special display device inside the refrigerator, which fixes the coincidence of the actual temperature of the working chamber with the set one. When there is a mismatch, the parameter of the display device changes, and this change in the form of an increase or decrease in the geometric size of the receptor (in this case, the bellows) modulates a stronger interaction of the electrical energy source with the electric motor of the compressor. In this case, the display does not merge with the behavior of the system as a whole. It osu-
It exists outside the process of turning the compressor on and off, has a different physical form. But it acts as an active factor that determines the nature of the behavior of a self-governing system.
Active display of the external environment by self-controlled systems acts as a phenomenon that weakly interacts with other processes that make up the energy and power aspects of self-government. This display changes the intensity, rhythm and other parameters of everything that is part of the self-propulsion of the system. This causes the effect of regulation in accordance with the properties of the external environment.
So, in order to become active, the mapping must turn into a relatively independent process, the carrier of which can be and most often is a special mechanism (receptor), which does not completely merge with the mechanism that provides the “power” component of the system’s behavior.
Self-governing systems "acquire" original, as N. Wiener said, "organs of impressions". As for living self-governing systems, at the lower stages of evolution they did not have specialized display organs, although elementary irritability was already an active regulator of the behavior of the simplest unicellular organisms.
Later, in the course of the evolution and complication of living organisms, specialized display organs arose, the task of which was the most adequate reproduction of the characteristics of the external environment in the form of a change in physiological processes.
It should be emphasized that the principle of active display of the environment surrounding the self-controlled system and self-display is one of the main principles of self-management processes.
In order to be active, a mapping needs to become communicative and take a form that is convenient for accumulation and subsequent comparison with mappings of a particular process in other phases and comparison with similar mappings of other processes, etc.
In the form in which the mapping occurs in the receptors of self-governing systems, it does not meet the listed requirements. The display is not communicable because of its material form (the form of movement through which the process in the receptor changes under the influence of the original). Such a form cannot be broadcast in space without being transformed into another form of movement under the conditions of mediated interaction (with the exception of sending photographs and drawings by mail).
None of the people can directly convey their sensations of heat, cold, smell, taste, color, touch of the surface of an object, and even more so their generalizations, conclusions, without resorting to designating the content of each of these displays by means of language, gesture, writing thoughts, mathematical formulas, so that these signs in other forms of movement than the form of movement of the display itself, reach the addressee and be perceived by him.
One of Swift's heroes, namely the professor of linguistics from the "Great Academy at Logado", introduced a project to completely eliminate all words in order to "save health and time." Since words are only the names of things, he suggested carrying with him ... things necessary for expressing thoughts and desires. One can imagine the fate of the followers of this anti-information idea.
Display communication from receptors to other elements of self-managed systems or from one self-managed system to other similar systems
mum is carried out in the form of a designated display content or, what is the same, in the form of information perceived by those elements and systems to which the transmitted display content is intended.
N. Wiener defines the concept of information in its qualitative aspect in this way. From his point of view, information is a designation of the content received by a self-governing system from the outside world in the process of adapting to it. "And the content received from the outside world is the content of the display. For greater correctness, one could say that information is the designation of the content of the display not only the external world, but also the own states of a self-governing system that has specialized receptors "embedded" in all its organs.
We will return to the issues of information and information communication in Chapter 3, but for now we note that this definition gives a semantic, and not a metric, characteristic of information.
So, in order to become an active factor in regulating the process of functioning, the content of the display must shed its original material form and take on another material form - be transformed into information. Only after that it can be transferred to the executive bodies in the form of signals, by means of any suitable process in the channel. Therefore, information could be defined as an encoded display (including forward).
Communication of the content of the display through the transmission of information can be carried out under the condition of functional and code pairing of the re-
" Cm. N. Wiener, Cybernetics and Society M, 1958, p 31.
ceptors with acceptors. This means that the acceptor (addressee) must be able to decode information, restore the content of the display in the receptor in the form of a change in its own processes.
All systems in inanimate nature are collections of elements interconnected by interaction within the physical integrity specific to each of such systems. Physical interaction is sufficient to preserve the certainty of such systems.
Elements and subsystems of self-managed systems also interact physically. Such physical interaction is a necessary condition for the existence of a self-governing system. At the same time, the elements of self-governing systems are connected not only and not so much by physical interactions. Self-governing systems are not simple collections of physically interacting elements, but communities of these elements. In this case, a community is a functional connection of various elements within the integrity of a self-governing system. The community differs from the totality in that the elements of the system are mainly held together by the commonality of their coordinated, systematically directed participation in the process of self-government of the system as an integral entity, by the commonality of the functional, which implies the unity of the specialized functions of the various elements of the system. Such a community is an expression of the functional integrity of a self-governing system.
If the set of elements of physical systems is held together only by physical interaction, then the community of elements of a self-governing system, or the community of self-governing systems, is held together by both physical interaction and information communication specific to self-governing processes.
The community, said N. Wiener, extends to the limit to which the actual transmission of information extends. He even considered it possible to give some measure of the community, to measure the degree of its independence by comparing the number of decisions coming into the group (community) with the number of decisions made in the group itself1.
Physical systems retain their integrity as long as the physical interaction of their elements is carried out. In this respect, self-managed systems differ little from physical systems. If the physical interaction of the main elements of a self-governing system is disturbed, then it loses not only physical, but also functional integrity, ceases to be self-governing.
The fundamental difference between self-governing systems and physical systems is that the break in the information links of the main elements leads to the loss of physical links, the disintegration of the system, both as a functioning one and as a physical integrity.
So, for example, the destruction of the central nervous system and, consequently, the loss of the information connection of the organs cause the death of the animal, after which the chemical decomposition and physical decay of its body begins. Attempts to combine bees of different species in one hive lead to the collapse of the bee hive, since the informational "dances" of Caucasian bees cannot be decoded by German bees. A nation cannot exist as a functional whole without a single language for each member of this nation, etc.
1 See N. Wiener. Cybernetics or control and communication in animal and machine. M., 1958, p. 195.
cited as the main reason for the decomposition and disintegration of the ancient "construction team" the confusion of languages, i.e. the loss of information links between the builders, their separation, which did not allow them to continue the joint work on the construction of this daring structure. Even the simplest homeostats cannot function without their elements being fastened together by information links.
All this gives grounds to call as one of the important principles of self-government the principle of information communication between the elements of a self-governing system, as well as self-governing systems within the community.
The principles of active behavior, active display, information connection of elements and goal setting are closely related to the principle of subordination of elements and the hierarchy of the structure of self-governing systems.
The prerequisites for hierarchical relationships can be traced in the processes of physical interaction of objects, although the elements of physical systems mainly enter into a coordination relationship. The beginnings of hierarchical relations of objects are contained in the asymmetry of most mediated interactions in inanimate nature, which is expressed by the ratio of primary and secondary objects, the determining and determined interaction of objects, producing and produced, etc. The direction of mediated physical interaction arises spontaneously and does not play a decisive role in physical connections elements of physical systems. This direction is developed at a higher structural level of the evolution of matter in the form of a regularly renewed functional relationship of subordination of the elements of self-governing systems.
The source of the formation of the relationship of subordinate
The cations are the previously mentioned types of mediated interactions - triggering and modulating, which can be called the physical basis of a single act of control. With such interactions, there is already a difference in the position and role of weak interactions of some objects and strong interactions of other objects. Weak interactions determine the nature of the strong ones, while the strong ones themselves do not determine the weak ones due to the irreversibility of the process.
Information communication also has this feature. It is always a directed process. This orientation in space and time expresses a certain dependence of the addressee on the source of information, the subordination of the relationship between the source and the addressee.
An elementary act of control is impossible without the subordination of power processes to non-power processes - managers, the primary source of which is an active display, represented by information in all control and executive elements of a self-governing system. Such subordination is expressed in a change in the structure of the energy process under the influence of the structure carried by the information.
The content of the reflection of the environment and its own state of a self-governing system that has arisen in the receptor in its direct form cannot become a factor that determines its behavior. This content must be processed in a certain way in accordance with the immanent laws of the functioning of a self-governing system so that it can become an agent of the control subsystem.
The processing of the display content consists in the accumulation, comparison, enrichment of information, the coordination of the information received with the information equivalent of functional invariants
and so on. In short, the information-transformed display content must be assimilated by the control subsystem in order to become a control factor.
Highly organized self-managed systems receive information not only from specialized display organs. Part of the information comes from executive elements, since the latter have the ability to display the outside world by changing their processes. This information can turn into a control factor only after passing through the control subsystem. And in this case, the information is used in accordance with the principle of subordination.
The hierarchy of the controlling and managed subsystems is complemented by the subordination of their elements. In the control subsystem of a highly organized system, there is a subordination of elements, which corresponds to the subordination of various levels of management. Most of the elementary ordinary acts of management are connected with the functioning of the elements of the lower levels of management. Elements of higher levels are released for more responsible acts of management throughout the system.
The hierarchy of elements of the control subsystem ensures the coordination of the functioning of elements that are indirectly and weakly connected with each other physically and informationally. In addition, the hierarchy allows for management and information communication in the most economical way and in accordance with all functional invariants of a self-managing system.
The subordination of subsystems and elements is absolutely necessary for the implementation of the process of self-government. However, the principle of subordination itself cannot become an absolute. This would lead to over-
control rigidity and weakening the functionality of a self-governing system. If the principle of subordination was absolutized, the upper levels of management would not take into account the tasks of the lower levels, the capabilities of the executive elements and the actual results of management. With excessively rigid management, a self-governing system becomes "voluntaristic" and unviable.
However, the hierarchy cannot be too vague. In this case, the "autarky" of elements of the lower levels of management and executive elements will lead to the disorganization of the self-government process as a whole, to the violation of the most important principle of self-government - its focus on achieving a certain result.
Subordination is always relative. Its relativity lies in the fact that elements of the lower levels of management and executive elements, if necessary, can and do have a significant impact on the elements of higher levels of management and the process of self-government as a whole 1.
The active participation of executive elements in the overall process of self-government is implemented on the basis of the feedback principle which plays a decisive role in the implementation of the directed behavior of a self-governing system in accordance with its functional invariants.
The material prerequisites for feedback are contained in the processes of physical interaction of objects in inanimate nature. During physical interaction, each object changes its state under the influence of other objects and, being changed,
" Cm. A. I. Kitov. Cybernetics. - "Physical Encyclopedic Dictionary", vol. 2. M., 1962, pp. 360, 361.
itself acts on other objects, changing them not only to the extent of its own potentialities, but also to the extent of the changes in its state received from these other objects. The return action of each object is continuously changing in accordance with the influence perceived from the outside. This is not yet feedback in the full sense of the word, but already a very real prerequisite for its appearance at a higher structural level of developing matter.
The actual process of feedback is inseparable from the process of self-management and is associated with the principles of active planned direction, active display, information communication and subordination.
Feedback serves as a necessary condition and a means of controlling the functioning of the control subsystem from the side of the elements of the controlled subsystem, controlling the compliance of the actual behavior of the system with its functional invariants, a means of self-control of the control subsystem and a means of eliminating the inconsistency of the act of control with external conditions and the capabilities of a self-governing system.
In the simplest technical control systems, feedback is realized in the form of a direct physical impact of the actuating elements on the control elements (mill shock, centrifugal controller, gyroscopic controller). In living and social systems, feedback is carried out in the form of information impacts of executive elements on managers.
Feedback through information links is flexible, fast and energy efficient. Such feedback is not essentially limited by the space
and time, since information can be transmitted over long distances and stored until the right moment.
At the same time, feedback increases the overall “inertia” of the self-management process. It always operates post factum, after the executive element has changed its state under the influence of the control subsystem.
For effective feedback, the tendency of discrepancy or convergence of the actual result of the act of control with the result that was planned by the control subsystem in accordance with the functional invariants of the self-governing system is essential. Therefore, in self-management processes, the feedback is predominantly negative, i.e., contributing to the weakening of the control action if it does not correspond to the functional invariant of the system under the given conditions of its functioning.
The feedback principle is implemented by a specific “trial and error” method, which requires additional time and energy costs to find the optimal control option. Systems with the least feedback inertia have the greatest potential for survival.
Direct and feedback links in the process of functioning of a self-governing system differ in structure from indirect physical interaction. If the latter can be performed as a direct and reverse action through the same mediating objects, then direct and feedback links in the form of information links are carried out in different ways and by different sources and addressees.
All of the above principles of self-government are inherent in the simplest homeostasis, i.e., the process of self-government aimed at maintaining dynamic
cal equilibrium of the system with its environment by maintaining the value of one parameter within certain limits. The simplest homeostat, which does not have the property of self-reproduction and the ability of individual development, functions in accordance with all the principles mentioned.
Since the simplest homeostat is an indispensable component in any process of self-government, all the principles discussed above can be classified as universal principles of functioning of self-managed systems.
In addition to the universal ones, there are also private principles of self-government, in accordance with which more highly organized self-governing systems function. Consider the conditions for the emergence of private principles of self-government.
A prerequisite for the functioning of systems that are more organized compared to the simplest homeostat is "memory", i.e. registration and fixation by material means of past situations in which the system fell, and the corresponding more successful (optimal in relation to functional invariants) and less successful (non-optimal ) management acts.
The material prerequisites for the appearance of "memory" are contained in the property of objects of inanimate nature to preserve for some time (or during the entire subsequent lifetime of the object) the images of other objects that interacted with them.
The transformation of the display into information in the form of a process change in the information communication channel and the possibility of fixing information in the form of a change in the communication structure of some elements of the control subsystem create conditions for the formation of memory.
In turn, "memory" serves as a material condition for the generalization and enrichment of the content of the accumulated information and, in connection with this, the progressive development of self-governing systems. This development can be specific, if self-governing systems have the ability to reproduce themselves (living systems), and individual.
In the first case, self-governing systems change their properties and even structure from generation to generation. In the second case, systems without structural changes increase their survival due to more active and adequate adaptation to the external environment.
The ability of highly organized self-governing systems to memorize "precedents" associated with management acts and enrich the content of information determines the accumulation experience system on which it relies in the implementation of subsequent acts of management in a new situation. Gaining experience is a process learning self-governing system.
Training is of two main types: ontogenetic And phylogenetic1.
Ontogenetic learning, which is carried out during the existence of a separate system, as a rule, proceeds from the task of preserving functional invariants, and therefore it is purposeful and systematic. Highly organized homeostats are capable of ontogenetic learning. Even such artificial self-governing systems as electric "turtles" are capable of individual learning and the development of stereotypes of behavior in similar conditions, reminiscent of the conditioned reflexes of highly organized animals.
" Cm. N. Wiener. New Chapters of Cybernetics. M., 1963, p. 19,
59
In addition to the general principles, the functioning of such systems is also subject to its particular principle of ontogenetic learning.
Species, or phylogenetic, learning is carried out during the existence of a species of self-reproducing self-governing systems. It is based on the spontaneously carried out natural selection of living systems with the most favorable for survival mutational changes in their structure and functional invariants, which are fixed in the genetic information code of subsequent generations. As a result of such selection and inheritance of favorable traits, unconditioned reflexes of animals are developed and consolidated. At the same time, the phylogenetic training of highly organized animals favors their effective individual training through the accumulation and use of personal experience, primarily the development of conditioned reflexes.
The most highly organized living system is man. Its phylogenetic training as a biological species is largely complete. But from time immemorial, phylogenetic learning of a new type began - the social learning of man as a social species. In the first stages of the history of human society, this learning was spontaneous, like biological phylogenetic learning. In the transition to the communist formation, social phylogenetic education acquires a systematic, purposeful character.
Social phylogenetic learning is made up of the accumulation by society of production skills, empirical and theoretical knowledge, of the acquired social experience and the development of forms of social consciousness, etc.
So far, artificial self-reproducing
running self-managed systems. Therefore, we can talk about the private principles of living self-governing systems, ranging from a virus to a person.
Living systems function in accordance with the universal principles of self-government: the principle of ontogenetic learning and inherent only to them. the principle of self-reproduction And the principle of phylogenetic learning or passive and spontaneous structural adaptation in the evolution of a species.
Significantly more active is adaptation, in which a self-governing system not only restructures its processes in relation to changes in external conditions, but also changes these conditions themselves, bringing them into line with their functional invariants.
Primitive forms of active adaptation are observed in many animals: building nests, burrows, dams to form reservoirs, storing food for the winter, searching for and using natural objects as tools for obtaining food (the African vulture finds suitable stones and breaks the shell of an ostrich egg with them, the monkey uses branches for knocking down fruits, breaks off and cleans a twig from leaves in order to get insects from cracks, etc.). However, these actions to transform the environment are small and highly selective to certain conditions.
Adaptation becomes fully active in the form of human social practice. First, on the basis of empirical, and then theoretical knowledge of objective laws, people carry out production activities to transform nature, that is, to radically reorganize the external environment of society in accordance with its needs.
The narrow range of biological possibilities for human survival in a certain environment is less and less an obstacle to the development of natural resources.
By creating an artificial environment adapted to the functional invariants of the human body, society provides inexhaustible possibilities for its development.
Apparently, one can consider as a particular principle of social, self-government the principle of active transformation of the external environment, based on the known objective laws of nature and society, in relation to the needs of society.
This concludes our brief description of the basic principles of self-government.
Based on this characteristic, one could give the following definition of the process of functioning of a self-governing system: self-government is a systematic and purposeful active process of choosing its own behavior by a self-governing system in such a way as to ensure its survival and further functioning in the range of changes in the external environment defined for this system.
If a self-governing system is capable of self-development, then the concept of self-government covers the processes of self-learning and self-improvement of the system in connection with a change in the conditions of its existence, as well as the subordination, to some extent, by a self-governing system of these conditions in relation to its needs. .
Since the nature of causality in the process of self-management is largely revealed with the help of the principle of information connection, we will consider this connection and information causality in the next chapter. I
SPORTS ACTIVITY AS A CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF MOVEMENTS
Sports action in biomechanics is studied as a system of movements controlled by an athlete. In order to better teach sports technique and master it, you need to know what are the tasks of management, how it is organized, and what changes occur during the formation and improvement of technology.
Self-managed systems are characterized by the fact that their management proceeds according to the basic laws of management and is introduced into the system not from the outside, but is carried out from within, by the system itself. Such self-controlled systems (real) are athletes - they themselves perform movements and control their movements themselves.
The system of movements of an athlete is also self-governing (system of processes), since the control actions are created in it itself.
Controlrepresents a change in the state of the system through control actions that are aimed at achieving the goal.
Each system has a certain state at any given time. A distinction is made between the initial state (before the start of control), the final state (given in advance) - as a given control result, and a number of intermediate states.
The order of changing system states regarded as the behavior of the system. The line of behavior of the system is determined by the successive change of its intermediate states.
Management Goal consists either in a predetermined final state (the final effect of a fencer's attack, the highest result of a long jumper), or in providing a given line of behavior (performing a gymnastic exercise). Often, to achieve the final state, it is also necessary to ensure a precise line of behavior. In variable conditions, the goal is often specified in the course of action, depending on the situation.
States and behavior of the movement system are determined and evaluated by changing biomechanical characteristics that signal the course of movements, reflect certain aspects of reality itself. Thus, the totality of characteristics is only a reflection of reality, the very process of movements and its management. The controlled system of movements is the reality itself.
The goal in the management is achieved with the help of control actions that change the state of the system in the required direction. In short, management is the process of achieving a goal.
In sports equipment, the main control actions- muscular efforts, with the help of which other forces are also controlled (gravity, inertia, etc.). In addition to the managers, there are always (to a greater or lesser extent) confounding influences that hinder the achievement of the goal (hindrances, harmful resistances).
LECTURE №8. BIOMECHANICS OF SPORTS AND TECHNICAL SKILLS
Indicators of technical skill
Technical readiness (or, in other words, technical skill) of athletes is characterized by what an athlete can do and how he owns mastered actions.
The first group of indicators includes: a) volume; b) versatility; c) the rationality of the technical actions that the athlete can perform. In the second: a) efficiency, b) mastery of implementation.
Scope of technical readiness is determined by the number of technical actions that an athlete can perform or perform. In this case, the technique is usually evaluated by the fact of execution (performed - did not perform, knows how - does not know how).
Distinguish between general and competitive volume technical readiness.
Overall volume characterized by the total number of technical actions mastered by this athlete;
Competition Volume- the number of different technical actions performed in competition conditions. So, for example, gymnasts - masters of sports of international class are able to perform 120-200 elements on each of the apparatuses (except for the vault). Thus, on all six apparatuses, high-class gymnasts can perform approximately 750-1000 different elements. In other sports, for example, in wrestling, the picture is similar. only a small number of attacking actions (often only one or two) to perfection This, of course, does not mean that qualified wrestlers can perform only these actions, in fights with unskilled athletes they can demonstrate a large amount of technical actions, but in decisive fights they prefer only their favorite methods.
Versatility of technical readiness
Versatility is characterized by the degree of variety of motor actions that an athlete owns or uses in competitions. Accordingly, general and competitive versatility is also distinguished here. Sportsmen who are more versatile in technical terms have more harmonious physical fitness, in particular, the topography of strength.
Scope and versatility of technical readiness are important indicators of the skill of athletes, especially in those sports where there is a large arsenal of technical actions (games, martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, etc.).
Rationality of technical actions is determined by the possibility to achieve the highest sports results on their basis. The rationality of the technique is not a characteristic of the athlete, but the very way of performing the movement, the type of technique used. In the history of almost every sport, there were periods of replacement of some ways of performing movements by others, more rational ones.
Considered three indicators of technical readiness of an athlete(volume, versatility and rationality of technical actions) speak only about what an athlete can perform. But they do not reflect the quality of performance - how the athlete performed the movements, how well he masters them. After all, it may happen that out of two athletes with equal physical abilities, the one who has mastered the irrational technique well will win. Therefore, when evaluating technical readiness, it is necessary to take into account the qualitative side of the possession of a movement - the effectiveness and mastery of its implementation.
The effectiveness of owning sports equipment(or the effectiveness of the technique) of a particular athlete is the degree of its closeness to the most rational option. The effectiveness of technology (as opposed to rationality) is not a characteristic of one or another variant of technology, but the quality of mastery of technology.
Depending on how the rational technique (sample, standard) is defined, there are three groups of performance indicators.
SELF-MANAGING SYSTEMS
UNDERSTAND
Is the subject a necessary component of governance? There are different points of view.
EXAMPLE The brilliant Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, describing Kutuzov’s “management style” during the Battle of Borodino, proceeded from the fact that all events unfolded to a certain extent by themselves and the role of the commander in chief was to not interfere with the general course of events. On the contrary, Napoleon actively influenced events all the time and, ultimately, lost the war.
EXAMPLE The bacterium enters an environment containing penicillin, which is poisonous to it. In response, she begins to secrete a special substance - the enzyme peniceliase, which destroys it. When all penicillin is destroyed, enzyme synthesis stops.
EXAMPLE The man starts running. His pulse immediately accelerates and as a result, the supply of oxygen to the muscles increases and they receive more energy for their work.
EXAMPLE Of particular importance in biology are a special type of reaction - homeostasis, which maintains the constancy of the internal environment of the body, for example, temperature.
The speed of various physiological processes depends on temperature: it usually doubles with each increase of 10 0 C. At the freezing temperature of water (or close to this point), life processes freeze, and with an increase in temperature they go faster. When a certain critical point is reached, the speed drops again, as the decomposition of some substances begins, and with a further increase in temperature, the organism dies.
Most plants and animals are cold-blooded and their body temperature is close to outside. As the temperature decreases, their activity decreases. Birds and mammals are able to maintain body temperature at a constant level (35-38 0 C) regardless of the ambient temperature. Thermoregulation is carried out on the principle of feedback. If body temperature decreases, then heat production increases, for example, due to shivering. Heat loss is reduced, for example, by reducing blood circulation in the vessels lying directly under the skin. If the body temperature rises, then the release of heat, for example, in the form of sweat, increases.
EXAMPLE As you know, the principle of complementarity plays a significant role in the formation of an ethnos - unconscious sympathy for some people and antipathy for others. For example, the Vikings did not take those they considered unreliable, cowardly, quarrelsome, or not ferocious enough. All this was very important, because it was a matter of taking him into one's boat, where the maximum burden and responsibility for one's own life and the lives of comrades should fall on each person.
These and other examples suggest that control in some cases can be carried out without the intervention of the subject. In this case, the following fundamental questions arise:
what is the mechanism of self-government;
how the goal of management is set, as long as the subject does not participate in it.
The mechanism of self-management essentially differs from the mechanism of management presented on the scheme §1. With self-management, objects act on each other, striving to become objects of control. In this case, the following situations are possible:
the impact of one of the objects becomes dominant and this object becomes a "normal" subject of management;
objects will destroy each other and possibly the entire system;
the goals pursued by the objects will be corrected and a certain dynamic equilibrium will come.
Obviously, long-term, strategic goals cannot be realized with self-government, since such goals can only be realized by the subject. In the process of self-management, when balance is reached, as a rule, there is a decrease in the level of goals, to tactical, sometimes even momentary ones.
It should be noted that control differs from interactions that in the process of management any goals are realized. In this sense, the attraction of the planets to the Sun is an interaction, not a control, since there is no clearly defined goal. On the other hand, an increase in the pulse rate of a running person is difficult to explain on the basis of any direct interaction, but here one can single out a specific goal - the preservation of life.
In the absence of a management subject, it would be more correct to speak not about “achieving a goal”, but about “pursuing a goal”, since “pursuing a goal” can be both consciously (when there is a subject) and unconsciously (when it comes to self-government). In what follows, to avoid confusion, we will talk about "goal achievement» only in relation to the subject of management, and "goal pursuit" towards self-government.
Thus, the self-management process is described by a different model than the management process in which the subject participates. The main points of formalization leading to the model of self-government that we are interested in are as follows:
the control object has a control effect on other objects, i.e. assumes the functions of the subject of management;
in the process of self-government, the goals of objects (as subjects of management) can be adjusted;
the control actions of the object are determined by its information model of the entire control system;
information models of different objects may not coincide with each other.
The general scheme of a self-governing system is as follows:
NOTE The self-management mechanism, according to N. Wiener, can be explained in terms of the basis of the concept of information circulating in the system. In this scheme, the concept of "information" is concretized to the concept of "information model": the self-management mechanism is based on an information model, on the basis of which a living being or a mechanism created by a person interacts with the system.
EXAMPLE In human society, the concept of "goal pursuit" is close to the concept of motive. There are various theoretical models of human motives.
According to Adam Smith, who conducted research at the beginning of the 19th century on English enterprises, a person always strives to improve his economic situation.
According to Lawrence and Laroche, people tend to reproduce the behavior that has already led to the expected result.
According to Maslow, a person seeks to satisfy needs in a strict hierarchical sequence: physiological ---- safety and security ---- social ---- respect ---- self-expression.
According to McKeland, needs have three main components: power, success, and belonging.
According to Vroom, motivation consists of expected results, rewards, and the value of the latter.
There is another, no less justified point of view that a self-governing system is nothing more than an abstract scheme, more or less close to reality.
EXAMPLE It is believed that the market is a self-governing system. Let's listen to what N. Wiener says about this in his famous book "Cybernetics". “... In many countries, it is widely believed, recognized in the United States as an official dogma, that free competition is itself a homeostatic process, i.e. that in the free market, the selfishness of the merchants, each of whom seeks to sell as high as possible and buy as low as possible, will eventually lead to a stable price movement and contribute to the greatest public good.
This opinion is connected with the very "consoling" view that the private entrepreneur, seeking to secure his own benefit, is in some way a public benefactor and therefore deserves the great rewards with which society showers him. Unfortunately, the facts speak against this simple-minded theory. The market is a game that finds its semblance in a family game called "monopoly". It strictly obeys the game theory developed by von Neumann and Morgenstern ... It is a market game played by quite reasonable, but completely shameless businessmen ... Driven by their own greed, individual players form coalitions, but these coalitions are usually not established in any one particular way, and usually end in a pandemonium of treason, renegade and deceit. ruin. But, let's say that the brokers are tired of this and they agreed to live in peace among themselves. Then the reward will go to the one who, choosing the right moment, violates the agreement and betrays his partners ... "(N. Wiener Cybernetics. Russian. Translation M., Nauka , 1983, pp. 240-241).
In real systems that are close to self-governing, phenomena are observed that make them extremely unstable. It has long been noted that many parameters of self-governing systems are subject to more or less significant fluctuations.
EXAMPLE In a market economy, the so-called "Kondratiev cycles" are well known - periods of stabilization and recession. The duration of the stable period is about 80 years, after which a decline follows.
Since every system strives for a stable state, the unstable state of a self-governing system can be resolved as follows:
the transition to the traditional control system discussed in §1;
destruction of the system;
transition to fundamentally new forms of management.
The third possibility will be discussed in detail in the fourth paragraph. As for the first two possibilities, the European thought of the twentieth century has studied them in sufficient detail.
EXAMPLE In artistic culture, there are very vivid images of the destruction of self-governing systems.
One of them is the dystopian novel by Nobel Prize winner W. Golding "Lord of the Flies" and a classic film based on it. It shows how a hundred normal children who ended up on a tropical island without adults decide to reproduce the political system "like adults" - with the election of parliament, the president, that is, through the creation of a self-governing system. Ultimately, this system collapsed and a rigid dictatorship was formed.
Another, equally striking example is the famous film by F. Fellini "Orchestra Rehearsal". By rebelling against the conductor, the musicians created a general chaos that led to destruction and death. Only by returning to music and remembering the conductor did they save themselves.
KNOW
Management can be carried out without a managing subject under the following conditions:
one of the control objects has a control effect on other objects, i.e. assumes the functions of the subject of management;
in the process of self-government, the goals of objects (as subjects of management) are adjusted, this leads, in particular, to the fact that only tactical goals can be achieved in it;
The mechanism of self-government, according to N. Wiener, can be explained on the basis of the concept of information circulating in the system . In this paragraph, the concept of "information" is concretized to the concept of "information model": the self-management mechanism is based on an information model, on the basis of which a living being or a mechanism created by a person interacts with the system.
In real systems, close to self-controlled, many parameters are subject to more or less significant fluctuations.
BE ABLE TO
TASK 1. H complete and analyze the table:
TASK 2. A computer is a very complex information system that includes various subsystems. Find out which computer information subsystems can be classified as self-managed.
QUESTION PROBLEM
As you know, in wildlife and in human society, many processes are cyclic in nature. For example, solar activity has an oscillation period of 11 years. Sometimes these cycles are interconnected, for example, the periodicity of social cataclysms is explained by the periodicity of some astronomical phenomena. Is such a comparison correct?
INTERESTING FACT
Let us trace a brief history of the “combination” of the concepts of “information” and “control” in the concept of “informational foundations of control”.
You know that for many centuries the concept of information has undergone changes more than once, either expanding or narrowing its boundaries. At first, this word was understood as “presentation”, “clarification”, “awareness”, then - “information”, “message transmission”. In the twentieth century, all kinds of means of communication (telephone, telegraph, radio) were rapidly developed, the purpose of which was to transmit messages. However, their operation raised a number of problems: how to ensure communication reliability in the presence of interference, how to encode a message in order to ensure the transmission of meaning with a certain degree of reliability with a minimum length. The solution of these problems required the development of a theory of message transmission, which from the very beginning was called information theory.
One of the issues under consideration of this theory was the question of measuring the amount of information. In order to apply mathematical means for measuring information, it was first necessary to abstract from the meaning, the content of messages. This led to the fact that for the informational evaluation of a message about a certain state of the system (event), only a set of system states that are different from each other and, accordingly, messages about them are used.
For example: in which of the four states (solid, liquid, gaseous, plasma) is the substance? On which of the four tracks will the train arrive? Which of the four toys will the child choose?
In all these cases, there is an uncertainty of the event, consisting in the choice of one of the four possibilities. If in the answers to the above questions we ignore their meaning and the probability of receiving them for the recipient of the message, then all answers will carry the same amount of information - 2 bits.
Thus, we determined the amount of information in these examples according to the formula proposed by R. Hartley (see 10th grade textbook, chapter 1, §1.5)
where N is the number of equiprobable states of the system (messages about the state of the system).
A refinement of this formula is K. Shannon's formula for measuring the amount of information:
where p i is the probability of the i-th signal out of k possible.
Using the differences in the formulas for the amount of information by K. Shannon and the entropy of L. Boltzmann (different signs), the French physicist L. Brillouin proposed to consider information as a negative entropy system, or negentropy. Since entropy is a measure of disorder in a system, information can be correlated with a measure of order in material systems.
The similarity of the formulas for the amount of information and entropy has led to the fact that the concept of entropy, which was previously used only for physical systems, began to be applied to systems of a different nature, in which it is more natural to talk about information.
The theory of information has “outgrown” the scope of its original tasks. It began to be applied to a wider range of phenomena. The increase in the amount of information began to be associated with an increase in the complexity of the system, with its progressive development. For example, according to some studies, when moving from the atomic level to the molecular level, the amount of information increases by 10 3 times. The amount of information related to the human body is 10 11 times more than the information contained in a unicellular organism.
Since it is not always possible to establish in advance a list of all states of the system and calculate their probabilities, many situations do not fit into the information model of K. Shannon. Developing the theory of information, R. Ashby suggested moving from considering information as “removed uncertainty” to its interpretation as “removed indistinguishability”. He believed that information is where there is diversity, heterogeneity. The more different elements and relationships between them in some object, the more information this object contains.
Based on the results of research by N. Wiener and K. Shannon, R. Ashby discovered a law called the law of necessary diversity , which, like Shannon's law for communication processes, can be common to management processes.
Its essence is as follows. To control the state of a cybernetic system, a regulator is needed that limits the variety of disturbances that can destroy the system. At the same time, the regulator allows such a variety of them, which is necessary and useful for the system.
In formula form, this law can be expressed as follows:
R p \u003d R in / R s,
where P p - the number of varieties of the regulator,
P in - the number of varieties of perturbations,
P c - allowable diversity of the system.
In logarithmic form, this law has the form:
log P p \u003d log P in / P s or log P p \u003d log P in - log P s.
If we consider the logarithms of diversity as the information content of systems, we get that:
I in \u003d I p + I s.
It follows from this formula that in order to save the system, the sum of the information states of the system and the controller must be equal to the information content of external disturbances.
Regulation, disturbances are terms associated with the control process. Therefore, the law of necessary diversity is one of the main ones in cybernetics - the science of control.
So, the concept of information in information theory was initially considered only in relation to communication processes, then it was used to characterize the complexity and orderliness of material systems, and then in relation to the management of systems of various nature.
EXPAND YOUR PERSPECTIVE
In the previous paragraph, it was noted that one of the most important goals of management is to create and maintain the system itself in a stable state. It is natural to transfer this goal to self-managed systems. Can it be implemented in the process of self-management.
In a more general form, one can ask the question: can a system that is in a chaotic state self-order? Taking into account the fact that the whole world is, to some extent, a system, this issue has a truly universal significance.
At first glance, it seems incredible that from a random mixture of any elements, suddenly, by themselves, without the intervention of an external organizing force, complex highly ordered structures arose. On this occasion, one of the characters in Cicero's treatise "On the Nature of the Gods" - the Stoic Balbus exclaims "I do not understand why a person who believes that this can happen should also not believe that if made of gold or any other material in huge quantities twenty-one letters, and then throw these letters on the ground, then from them the Annals of Ennaeus will immediately turn out, so that they can be read at once.
For a mixture of indifferent bodies, which was meant, this is indeed true. However, in the totality left to itself, the elements of which are not indifferent to each other, structures gradually spontaneously arise, more and more optimal from the point of view of the objective rules of interelement interaction operating in them. In other words, it is prone to self-ordering, to self-organization.
“First of all, chaos arose...” - this position is the oldest cosmological postulate, which is equally inherent in both mythology and the most modern scientific concepts. Planetary systems are formed from gas and dust nebulae. Shapeless protoplasmic clumps give rise to highly ordered organisms. The world is inherent in the movement from the original formlessness to the acquisition of form, from chaos to order. Here, however, a subtle question arises - for how long can this happen? If, for example, the time of the emergence of an ordered Universe from chaos is greater than its age, then this can be seen as a denial rather than a confirmation of the idea of self-organization. Today it can be stated that the idea of self-organization, which is the core of a new scientific discipline - synergetics - is extremely popular, because in many respects it allows to preserve the traditional natural-scientific picture of the world.
The problem of the emergence of order out of chaos, the dilemma of forced organization through an external organizing principle, on the one hand, and natural self-organization, on the other, is closely related to questions of the self-sufficiency of the material world.
“Is it really possible for any sane person to think that all this arrangement of stars, this wonderful beauty of the sky, could have been produced by calves rushing back and forth at the behest of a blind chance. Or was some other nature, devoid of mind and reason, able to produce this? Why, even in order to understand what it is, the greatest mind is required, and even more so in order to create it, ”said the already mentioned Balbus.
The answer to this question rests on our worldview.
Many examples can be cited in favor of the idea of self-organization of matter (as well as in its denial).
The process of self-organization can be visually demonstrated using the so-called "cellular automata", the most famous example of which is the game "Life".
Consider the following game.
Imagine a field divided into cells. For simplicity, let's take a small field, for example 5x5 cells. Suppose that each cell can be in one of two states: to be filled or not.
Let at the initial moment of time half of the cells be painted over, and these cells are randomly distributed over the entire field (Fig..)
Suppose further that at the next moment of time a cell will change its state to the opposite, if in its immediate environment among neighboring cells, there are cells of an alternative type and, on the contrary, it remains the same as it was, if its environment is dominated by or do not even constitute a minority, cells of the same type with it. By repeating this process again and again, you can come to some structure that will no longer be subject to further changes. In this example, this is already happening in the fourth "generation" of cells.
The reason for this is that during the game the cells "inform" each other about their state and react to it in accordance with the established rules.
This raises an extremely important question. Is the outcome of a self-organizing process predetermined, and is it possible in principle to predict the final result?
In self-organizing, especially in the early stages of evolution, ambiguous situations arise or, as they say, “bifurcation points” from which development can go in different directions depending on random factors (more details about bifurcation points will be discussed in the next paragraph).
For example, in the model above, it is possible to distinguish an objective pattern from shaded and unshaded cells - cells of different names are “attracted” to each other. However, even despite the objective nature of this regularity in each specific At the moment of time, there is an alternative of attraction of cells A and B or, say, cells A and C. As a result, either a stable pair AB or a stable pair AC is formed, which in turn can lead to the development of the system along two non-intersecting lines.
In this regard, it is instructive to analyze many historical events: whether they are historically inevitable or determined by the actions of random (or purposeful) forces applied to the system at the bifurcation point.
As a rule, "historically inevitable" events always have an alternative, and which of them will come true is largely a matter of chance or a personal factor. A person with volitional qualities can most decisively influence the further development of the system, regardless of the means at his disposal, if his efforts are applied in a given place and at a given time.
