p.111 The idea of feedback is utterly essential to both cybernetics and the discussion of performative representations which follows. Feedback is best thought of as a causal loop. The loop starts with an action, which causes changes in the world, resulting in signals that are fed-back to the agent. It is important to note that it is a strictly causal, material sequence. It does not require the strict notion of symbolic encoding and decoding that is associated with Shannon’s definition. It does require an interplay of the agency of a regulator, and the agency of the world. There is an implicit sense of structure in this causal loop–there has to be an ability to distinguish the consequences of an action on the part of the agent, i.e., a processing of the feedback information.
p.111 The loop also implies the persistent involvement of the environment in the actions of an agent. This involvement is simultaneously causal and semantic–and this is what I shall mean by “performative.” If the feedback loop is the causal mechanism which determines the significance of the agent’s actions as is argued, then it is an essential element of its semantics. The agent and the environment are always coupled to each other, and the semantics of the agent’s representations of the world are enmeshed and embedded in the world, because the agent’s actions and perceptions are too.
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