CHAPTER 7 



The Ultrastable System 



7/1. We have now assembled the necessary concepts. They 

 are all denned as relations between primary operations, so they 

 are fully objective and conform to the basic requirements of 

 S. 2/10. We can now reconsider the basic problem of S. 5/14, 

 and can consider what is implied by the fact that the kitten 

 changes from having a cerebral mechanism that produces un- 

 adapted behaviour to having one which produces behaviour that 

 is adapted. 



The implications of adaptation 



7/2. In accordance with S. 3/11, the kitten and environment 

 are to be considered as interacting; so the diagram of immediate 

 effects will be of the form of Figure 7/2/1 . (The diagram resembles 

 t that of Figure 5/13/1, except that the fine net- 



£ny * ..^ work of linkages that actually exists in environ- 

 ment and R has been represented by shading.) 

 The arrows to and from R represent, of course, the 



t sensory and motor channels. The part R belongs 



f to the organism,* but is here defined purely func- 



tionally; at this stage any attempt to identify R 

 with anatomical or histological structures must be 

 QpJffT made with caution. R is defined as the system 

 Figure 7/2/1 tnat acts wnen tne kitten reacts to the fire — the 

 part responsible for the overt behaviour. 

 It was also given, in S. 5/14, that the kitten has a variety of 

 possible reactions, some wrong, some right. This variety of 

 reactions implies, by S. 6/3, that some parameters, call them S, 

 have a variety of values, i.e. are not fixed throughout. These 

 parameters, since their primary action is to affect the kitten's 

 behaviour (and only mediately that of the environment), evidently 

 have an immediate effect on R but not on the environment. 



80 



tiny. 



UU 



