[wavemode]

> So I get confused when I read things like "feedback doesn't scale". Because what am I, if not a self-organizing collective of a trillion cells.

Well, yeah, that feedback scales perfectly because your cells don't have free will.

I think there are plenty of real-world examples of large-scale projects where feedback scaled well, for similar reasons... though I doubt we want to use those as a guide.

[lukan]

"because your cells don't have free will"

They are still independent cells. If they stop cooperating with the rest of the body, they become literally cancer.

[TeMPOraL]

They are not independent. They're specialized. They're machines bred to perform highly specific functions in a very specific environment. They cannot survive outside of it.

Edit: in fact, this "negative space" is probably underappreciated as the force defining the concept of a "living organism" itself. The fact that we can't just swap cells or pieces of cells around, that there is no universal, general-purpose cell that can be a skin cell today, a muscle cell tomorrow, a brain cell next week - is what makes nature be composed of organisms, instead of just being one big soup of cells.

[lukan]

Yes, you are right. Independent was not the right word, but I don't find a better one. My point was, cells used to be independent, but if they act independent now, out of sync with the feedback from the whole organism, the results are bad.

[7bit]

And tons of people get cancer, or muscle cramps, or, or, or. So clearly even on that level feedback doesn't scale.

[nolroz]

This is a great example of when feedback breaks down. The cells should be dying, but don't. I think we say that cancer is influenced by signals that are misinterpreted or ignored.

[lukan]

It does, otherwise you would not be alive. No one said it does work always ..