IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 84
Applications to the State and to Economics
FIGURE 4. Some of Von Uexküll's text, showing his in-text
"system" or "signal-flow "diagrams."
In the second edition (1928) we find some even more
surprising representations, very close to modern neural
net approaches (Figure 5).
Perhaps the most important of Von Uexküll's physiological feedback ideas is illustrated in Figures 6 and 7.
Here he gives signal flow diagrams of an organism and
its relationship with the environment [4], [5]. Feedback
is clearly indicated. This is perhaps the clearest view of
a pre-WWII feedback system in a biological context.
The captions on the English translation are translated rather literally, but in modern systems terms we can
identify feedback loops, physiological sensors, and actuators (muscles, etc.), and so on. Figure 7 is even clearer,
in which the organism is shown acting and interacting
with an "object" through sensing, feedback, and actions
within its environment.
Both Von Uexküll and another German biologist, Richard Wagner, also applied their developing systems thinking to social issues.In a little-known work, The Biology
of the State, Von Uexküll likened the state to an organism, with analogies within the state to the "nutrition,"
"physiology," "diseases," "parasites," and so on of an
organism [6]. (See Figure 8.)
Although not explicit, given Von Uexküll's use of signal flows in biology, many subsequent ideas about
"information" are implicit in this work. Certainly, he
adopts a typical systems abstraction, as shown in Figure 9. Figure 9(a) shows a simple map, with the locations of fields, meadows, farmyard, mill, stream, baker,
and village. Part (b) however links these components in
a functional way, with no particular topographical relationship. The harvested wheat passes through the farm
to the mill and the baker, who then produces various
types of bread: pretzels, croissants, and loaves in the
figure. Finally the produce is distributed, as shown in
part (c). Information irrelevant to the production and
distribution processes is omitted.
Von Uexküll also considers how the biological
notions of symbiosis and parasitism can be applied to
the State. His discussion leads us rather too far from
the thrust of this paper to be considered in detail,
but it is worth including one short quotation. Recall,
(a)
(b)
FIGURE 5. (a) One of Von Uexküll's figures, closely resembling a neural net. (b) The sprouting of one net into part of another.
84
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE
∕
DECEMBER 2017
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