Feedback Runaway is a situation in a feedback system where (usually positive) feedback causes a undesirable situation to become worse. The most common use of the term is in Thermal runaway, when an increase in temperature leads to changes that cause further increase of temperature.

In Computer Science, Process scheduling may cause in a form of runaway if real-time processes consume too much CPU time and have their priority reduced, therefore having to complete more processing each slice which will reduce their priority further. To prevent this many operating systems have special scheduling options for real-time processes.

Many Biological and Artifical Intelligence examples of feedback runaway occur when each generation or iteration produces more organisms or data, resulting in a geometric increase unless some are culled. Economic types of feedback runaway include a bear market, where the dropping price of shares causes more people to sell, lowering the price further. Another is when rising costs prompt consumers to purchase more in expectation of higher costs in the future - the increased demand causing prices to rise further.

References

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