Two Types of Stability
Dec. 25, 2024In order to survive, the human body maintains stability in two ways.
Homeostasis — the process of maintaining internal stability by adhering to fixed points.
Examples: maintaining optimal pH, liver enzymes, body temperature
Allostasis — the process of obtaining stability by adapting to anticipated demands or environmental stressors.
Examples: cortisol during fight or flight, inflammatory responses, shunting of blood
Both are necessary for survival. One is required to keep the organism alive over the long term, the other helps us respond to emergent or future scenarios.
Key Differences #
| Aspect | Homeostasis | Allostasis |
|---|---|---|
| Stability Mechanism | Maintains fixed set points. | Adapts by adjusting set points. |
| Scope | Short-term and specific. | Long-term and systemic. |
| Predictive vs Reactive | Reactive to deviations. | Predictive, anticipatory changes. |
| Flexibility | Limited, rigid targets. | Highly flexible and adaptive. |
| Focus | Internal consistency. | Context-dependent optimization. |
Interdependence #
- Homeostasis relies on allostasis to adapt to changing environments and maintain stability under stress. For example, the stress response (allostasis) helps maintain core body functions like temperature and pH (homeostasis).
- Allostatic load: Chronic activation of allostasis can lead to physiological wear and tear, disrupting homeostasis and leading to conditions like hypertension or metabolic disorders.
Both processes are crucial for survival, but they operate on different levels and time scales.
Stasis in Organizations #
A healthy organization needs homeostasis AND allostasis. We need our core values, customer relationships, accounting, and legal to maintain homeostasis. We need our business plans, customer acquisition, and staffing to be adaptible to changing market conditions.
Stasis in Technology #
Consider, then, how these two mechanisms affect your use of technology. (Forgive the implied dualism here)
- Operating Systems (Windows and Linux ↔ All Modern Mobile OSes)
- Programming Languages (COBOL, Java, SQL ↔ JavaScript, Rust, Elixir)
- Software Architectures (Monolith vs Microservice, N-Tier ↔ Event-Driven)
- Infrastructure (On-Prem, Colocation, ↔ Cloud Native)
- Machine Learning (Mechanical Turks, Regression Analysis and Forecasting ↔ LLMs, AGI)
I suspect most technology leaders will respond but we need both. The key insight will come in knowing what to keep fixed to maintain stability, and when to employ change in order to maintain stability. After all, clutching our pearls (and by “pearls” I mean “give me my Object-Orientation and Enterprise Integration Patterns”) while our competitors eat our customer base won’t maintain stability any more than adopting every passing fad (crypto, anyone).