Monday, September 14, 2009

What is Feedback?

According to Webster's dictionary, feedback is the return to the input of a part of the output of a machine, system, or process (as for producing changes in an electronic circuit that improve performance or in an automatic control device that provide self-corrective action).

To elucidate the meaning of the word feedback, let's look at the 'Communication and Cyberspace' book's example on page 48, of our assigned text. It reads: "Norbert Weiner, the child prodigy and mathematical wizard.... formulated the basis for the engineering of "feedback" into so many of the devices we associate with computer assisted living from cruise control to the smart house......" "Weiner, who had wanted to become a medical doctor, found he was unable to properly slice sections for for up-to-standard microscopic slides (an essential task for all medical students in those days). He could not do so, not because he had unsteady hands, but because his vision was very poor. His eureka was to realize that his hand and eye formed a loop of control and adjustment; a feedback loop, he called it, realizing it was an essential component of all activity, because all activity is interactivity. Feedback then began to be consciously engineered into all sorts of devices...."
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6 comments:

  1. Lance StrateSeptember 15, 2009 at 12:49 PM

    And this comment too, is a form of feedback, positive feedback as I compliment you on a job well done!

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  2. Lauren McCurdySeptember 15, 2009 at 1:03 PM

    I'm wondering if it's possible to live in a world without feedback. With all of our modern technologies and communication systems, it seems as though it is practically impossible to communicate and stay isolated. Everything from texts to blogs to telephone calls includes feedback. Imagine if every time you sent a text, you knew that you would not hear back from the person. In that sense, it's almost like "if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make a noise". If you send information out into a digital or cyber system and no one is able to respond or provide any sort of feedback, then did it actually constitute as sending?

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  3. will sandersonSeptember 15, 2009 at 2:57 PM

    My question revolves around the gaining of information. If feedback is not given, does the sender truly know whether the message has been delivered? If the receiver understands the transmission but does not give feedback, has the goal of the transmission been achieved? It does not seem like any one has actually communicated unless there is feedback. The message has only gone in one direction; without feedback, the goal of the message has been lost.

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  4. Marc TSeptember 17, 2009 at 3:08 PM

    I agree Will, the goal of a communication is to evoke some sort of response or feedback. However, there can be instances where the goal of the message is not to evoke a response or feedback but solely meant to inform.

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  5. RubySSeptember 21, 2009 at 8:29 PM

    In response to Lauren, I would say it would not be possible to live in a world without feedback. Actually, I guess it might be possible to "live" but not possible to coexist. Without feedback communication would be something pointless. If people tried to communicate with another and got no feedback they would never know what was going on and their would be chaos.

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  6. Andrew SSeptember 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM

    People have made very good points in that without feedback there really wouldn't even be a point in communicating because it would be impossible to come to any kind of a consensus. Everyone would be self-absorbed and desperately trying to do their own thing while operating independently. Without feedback there can be no real communication.

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