A comment by a friend regarding Wikipedia recently got me thinking about self-correcting systems. When I was teaching, I didn’t eschew Wikipedia like many of my colleagues did. In case you’ve been living in a cave the last two decades, Wikipedia can be edited by anyone. When I had more time than I do now, I used to correct errors I found there. The thing is Wikipedia shouldn’t be used as the final word. It’s a good place to start and, if you’re concerned about the truth, you’ll follow up by checking footnotes and looking up the references. (Standard operating procedure for academics.) Readers always need to keep in mind that what they’re reading may have been manipulated and distorted, which is why you want to check with established sources—some of us still prefer print, which isn’t so easily altered. Still, Wikipedia is self-correcting and it works fairly well.
This got me to thinking about other self-correcting systems. Those who know me know that I take criticism pretty hard. That’s because I was raised with a crippling fear of Hell that let me to self-correct whenever I discovered an error. And to scan my thoughts and motivations constantly for mistakes. Sensitive bosses know that I only need to learn about an error I made, even obliquely, and that I don’t need to be told to fix it. Of course I don’t! Hell awaits those who let mistakes fester. I’m not sure this is a good kind of self-correcting system, but it keeps me on my toes, and at times, even on my toenails.
The human body is often a self-correcting system. We need the help of physicians when disease or injury occurs, but healing is part of a self-righting system. (I’m indebted to an episode of Northern Exposure for reminding me of this recently.) On an even larger scale, life on earth is self-correcting. We humans have done more than our fair share of damage, and the self-correction (e.g., extreme weather because of global warming) may not be to our liking, but it is a system doing what it does best—righting the ship. This kind of self-correction is inspiring and inspirational although we often take it for granted. If healing didn’t occur none of us would be here to notice just how remarkable it is. I don’t dismiss Wikipedia just because we can’t be sure everything’s written by experts. Self-correcting systems are often the way of the world.