5/16 



DESIGN FOR A BRAIN 



this co-ordination will hold over the whole system (S. 4/15). It 

 follows that the behaviour of the ' animal '-part will be co- 

 ordinated with the behaviour of X although the ' animal ' has 

 no immediate contact with it. 



In the higher organisms, and especially in man, the power to 

 react correctly to something not immediately visible or tangible 



-< — | , 



-< — | . 



i 



: ►-• 



■ >- . 



Figure 5/15/1. 



has been called i imagination ', or i abstract thinking ', or several 

 other names whose precise meaning need not be discussed at 

 the moment. Here we should notice that the co-ordination of 

 the behaviour of one part with that of another part not in direct 

 contact with it is simply an elementary property of the stable 

 system. 



5/16. At this stage it is convenient to re-state our problem in 

 the new vocabulary. If, for brevity, we omit minor qualifications, 

 we can state it thus : A determinate ' machine ' changes from 

 a form that produces chaotic, unadapted behaviour to a form in 

 which the parts are so co-ordinated that the whole is stable, 

 acting to maintain certain variables within certain limits — how 

 can this happen ? For example, what sort of a thermostat could, 

 if assembled at random, rearrange its own parts to get itself 

 stable for temperature ? 



It will be noticed that the new statement involves the concept 

 of a machine changing its internal organisation. So far, nothing 

 has been said of this important concept ; so it will be treated 

 in the next two chapters. 



70 



