I see no evidence for feedforward in natural systems and that is why the biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy probably did not include it in his writing about general systems theory. It exists in humans and should be more prominent in their decision making about faunal resource management. Based on my experiences, it seems tough to understand. I've written about it but here is a brief stab at explaining it again.
It's an action like well-known feedback. It takes well developed estimates and prognostics about the future and uses them in the process of implementing systems that will be most right over some specified "long-run." It is not just future telling but also active use of such results in the present to keep the design (or decision) from being right today (thus probably wrong tomorrow) or right at some future date (thus probably too costly to implement today), but best or least bad over all of the years of the planning period.
All planning needs to be future oriented. Futures cannot be known so feedforward is probably too ascientific to be engaged by pure scientists. In seriously implementing feedforward we make it just as important to use many techniques (e.g., regression analyses, time series analyses, scenerio building, delphi procedures) as in planting corn for specific animal species. We apply it to all parts of the general system. We also bring those results into decisions ... at least the several best options for the predicted future.
One colleague said it was just deciding based on what " you really believe is going to happen."
No, squirrels do not know the future. Hoarding and hiding tree seeds is a population survival behavior, not feedforward.
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