by A Midwestern Doctor, Lew Rockwell:

I have long believed in a “law of equilibrium” which posits that most things are cyclical and will eventually be brought back into balance. Mechanistically, this frequently results from existing phenomena being the result of competing forces reaching a balance point (e.g., you don’t fall through the floor because the ground pushes up on you just as hard as gravity pulls you down) and because nature’s design utilizes feedback loops to maintain balance.

This process is commonly referred to as “negative feedback,” where anything that shifts a system away from its center (e.g., its “set point”) triggers a response that counteracts that change (e.g., a thermostat kicks on the heat when the temperature drops too low, or turns on the AC when it climbs too high). Biology in turn, has many layers of these negative feedback loops (where one thing counteracts another which counteracts another etc.) which collectively are able to keep the immensely complex orchestra of life functioning.