DESIGN FOR A BRAIN 



5/14 



arrived at the ' adapted ' condition (S. 5/7). If disturbed, its 

 changes will show co-ordination of part with part (S. 5/12), and 

 this co-ordination will hold over the whole system (S. 4/18). 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. (Example in S. 8/7.) 



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

 react correctly to something not immediately visible or tangible 

 has been called ' imagination ', or ' 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 



-< — . 



"* — I 



! > 



'-. > 



Figure 5/13/1. 



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. 



5/14. Let us now 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 its 

 essential 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 chapter. 



70 



