AMPLIFYING REGULATION 14/7 



regulation far greater than could be achieved by the gene-pattern 

 directly. 



A clear example of how one regulator can act so as to cause the 

 development of another occurred in S. 12/1 5. Part B of the homeo- 

 stat was built and thus became the primary regulator R^. Coupled 

 to Part A, it acts so as to cause A to become stable with its needles at 

 the centre. When this is achieved, A acts as a regulator {R2) towards 

 disturbances coming to it that would make the needles diverge. 

 Though the R2 of this particular example is extremely simple, 

 nothing in principle separates this case from those in which the 

 regulator R2 is of any degree of complexity. 



The method of achieving regulation in two stages, by which the 

 gene-pattern makes Ri, and Ry makes R2, is the method of the 

 mammals, whose gene-pattern is used, in its action on the embryo 

 brain, to determine the development at birth of some fundamental 

 regulators (R^) whose action is not immediately to the organism's 

 advantage. From birth onwards, however, they act towards the 

 cerebral cortex so as to develop in it a vast regulatory mechanism 

 {R2) that, by the time adulthood arrives, is a much better regulator 

 (i.e. of larger capacity) than could have been produced by the action 

 of the gene-pattern directly. 



Whence comes the supplementation? From random sources as 

 in S.12/15 and from the environment itself! For it is the environ- 

 ment that is forced to provide much of the determination about 

 how the organism shall act. Thus gene-pattern and environment 

 both contribute to the shaping of the fully developed adult, and in 

 this way the quantity of design supplied by the gene-pattern is 

 supplemented by design (as variety and information) coming from 

 the environment. Thus the adult eventually shows more regulatory 

 capacity than could have been determined by the gene-pattern alone. 

 The amplification of regulation is thus no new thing, for the higher 

 animals, those that adapt by learning, discovered the method long 

 ago. 



May it not be possible that the amplification can be increased 

 even further? If so, is there not a possibility that we can use our 

 present powers of regulation to form a more highly developed 

 regulator, of much more than human capacity, that can regulate 

 the various ills that occur in society, which, in relation to us, is a 

 very large system? 



14/7. Amplifying intelligence. This book is intended to be an 

 Introduction, and for twelve chapters it has kept to its purpose. 

 The last two chapters, however, have developed the subject somewhat 



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