4.1 Loops
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While infrastructures define the range of dynamic behaviour patterns systems are capable of exhibiting, the particular kind of feedback relationships that are superimposed on the infrastructure will determine which of these patterns will be realized. A feedback relationship is a closed-loop circle of cause-and-effect. Feedback loop cause-and-effect always runs from stocks to flows and back to stocks again. This is because stocks, you'll recall, are "conditions." Conditions, once perceived, give rise to actions, or flows of activity. Flows, in turn, change conditions. A simple picture of the process appears below.
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