“The primary fact is that all isolated state-determined dynamic systems are selective: from whatever state they have initially, they go towards states of equilibrium. These states of equilibrium are always characterised, in their relation to the change-inducing laws of the system, by being exceptionally resistant.”

Source: Design for a Brain: The Origin of Adaptive Behavior (1952), p. 238

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W. Ross Ashby 26
British psychiatrist 1903–1972

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