fncceo
Diamond Member
- Nov 29, 2016
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Positive Feedback isn't, as so many assume, a treat for doing a good job. Positive Feedback, in a biological sense, is something that often will destabilize homeostasis.
In a negative feedback loop, an overabundance of one factor will trigger another factor to work to reduce that. Blood Glucose levels, for example, in a healthy individual will stay stable because a detected rise in glucose will trigger the production of additional insulin to store the excess glucose. Homeostasis is maintained.
An example of positive feedback might be the body's febrile reaction to infection, the fever. A rise in fever will trigger an increase in the metabolic rate, leading to a further increase in temperature, that will further increase the metabolic rate. If the fever isn't externally controlled, or the infection trigger removed, body temperature will increase to the point of fatality.
Right now, The COVID Pandemic is an example of a political positive feedback loop. Every person involved in combating the infection, and every person who has a vested interest in maintaining public fear of the infection, has every reason to feed into the panic and no reason at all to work for restored calm.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle see this as an opportunity to gain more power or to deprive their opponents of power by saying they aren't doing enough. Both sides benefit from increased panic.
Hospital administrators see huge funding increase coming their way from the public sector. Public officials charged with public health see additional authority and even public fame coming their way (can you name another time in recent history when the head of an agency such as NIAID receives a national soapbox and daily TV coverage?). Pharmaceutical companies will be raking in record profits and receive the additional benefit of being relieved of liability for any vaccines they produce in the current emergency.
News agencies, traditionally the bulwark against excesses of government or the private sector, are enjoying record ratings and advertising revenues as people clamor for their daily dose of panic porn.
There literally is no check against the rising tide of hysteria that the pandemic has brought. I'm curious to see just how far this will go. I fear we have only seen the beginning and what we see today is the new normal.
In a negative feedback loop, an overabundance of one factor will trigger another factor to work to reduce that. Blood Glucose levels, for example, in a healthy individual will stay stable because a detected rise in glucose will trigger the production of additional insulin to store the excess glucose. Homeostasis is maintained.
An example of positive feedback might be the body's febrile reaction to infection, the fever. A rise in fever will trigger an increase in the metabolic rate, leading to a further increase in temperature, that will further increase the metabolic rate. If the fever isn't externally controlled, or the infection trigger removed, body temperature will increase to the point of fatality.
Right now, The COVID Pandemic is an example of a political positive feedback loop. Every person involved in combating the infection, and every person who has a vested interest in maintaining public fear of the infection, has every reason to feed into the panic and no reason at all to work for restored calm.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle see this as an opportunity to gain more power or to deprive their opponents of power by saying they aren't doing enough. Both sides benefit from increased panic.
Hospital administrators see huge funding increase coming their way from the public sector. Public officials charged with public health see additional authority and even public fame coming their way (can you name another time in recent history when the head of an agency such as NIAID receives a national soapbox and daily TV coverage?). Pharmaceutical companies will be raking in record profits and receive the additional benefit of being relieved of liability for any vaccines they produce in the current emergency.
News agencies, traditionally the bulwark against excesses of government or the private sector, are enjoying record ratings and advertising revenues as people clamor for their daily dose of panic porn.
There literally is no check against the rising tide of hysteria that the pandemic has brought. I'm curious to see just how far this will go. I fear we have only seen the beginning and what we see today is the new normal.
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