Do you remember Homeostasis from high school biology?
Probably not – but I bet you have a pretty good idea about what it means.
Here’s what Webster-Mirriam says it means:
: a relatively stable state of equilibrium or a tendency toward such a state between the different but interdependent elements or groups of elements of an organism, population, or group
Of course, then, we have to define equilibrium also:
1 a: a state of intellectual or emotional balance : trying to recover his equilibrium
1 b: a state of adjustment between opposing or divergent influences or elements
2: a state of balance between opposing forces or actions that is either static (as in a body acted on by forces whose resultant is zero) or dynamic (as in a reversible chemical reaction when the rates of reaction in both directions are equal)
3: BALANCE
So, basically Homeostasis is about the tendency to balance through some dynamic variation about a central tendency.
Or, you know, things will vary a little bit but mostly be the same.
We can obviously expand this far beyond biological systems to see that things are generally pretty stable, but vary around this stability in a predictable, but dynamic way. So sometimes it’s really hot outside, and sometimes it’s really cold, but mostly it’s tolerable.
This week I extrapolate the concept of Homeostasis far beyond this to include our minds, our thoughts, and how we can define goals and values at the species level to accommodate 7.5 Billion people. Full Episode Friday.