Positive vs. Negative Feedback
From Cassiopedia
These science terms are often used in a somewhat allegoric sense.
Literally, a negative feedback loop is a system that seeks to maintain a constant state. An example would be a thermostat that switches the air conditioning on when the room gets too hot.
A positive feedback loop is one where the system's output feeds its input, adding energy to the system and again increasing output, and so on, repeatedly. An example is a sound system where a microphone picks up the signal to the speakers, feeds it to the amplifier, which sends the same signal to the speakers, which is again picked up by the microphone. This usually makes a loud screeching sound. An explosive chain reaction or the cascading discharge of energy from electrons dropping orbits in a laser is another example of the general idea.
The point of the analogy is that humanity seems to be living inside a negative feedback loop which eventually destroys all its accomplishments. History is full of examples of advance being followed by war and chaos.
The other side of the analogy is that a process of creation building and expanding on itself - a positive feedback loop - would be the model for a service to others oriented mode of being. Also, Such a process may be internal to a person as well as societal or cosmic. Sudden realizations, jumps from chaos into order, seem to have this nature. A certain accumulation of energy, knowledge or understanding reaches a critical point then enters a qualitatively different state. Such a jump seems to consist of a cascade of positive feedback from the system on itself.
In a final sense both types of processes are needed for the universe's 'metabolism.' The consciousness of a being may however choose to tend towards one or the other type of process.