Pyotr Anokhin’s Systems Approach in the Digital Era
At first glance, the Theory of Functional Systems (TFS), developed by Pyotr Anokhin , belongs to the realm of "old" physiology. In reality, it proves to be closer to modern artificial intelligence, control theory, and cybernetics than to classical textbooks on reflexes. We regard TFS not as a historical curiosity, but as a rigorous model of how a system acts purposefully—specifically, how it achieves a result and maintains its stability. This model is inherently scalable: the same logic applies to an individual neuron, an entire nervous system, an artificial network, a hospital, a city, or a planetary network. In other words, we can describe a hospital or a city using the same conceptual apparatus as a single neuron. The Rejection of Linear Determinism For a long time, the primary framework of neurophysiology and its application to other sciences was the reflex —the " stimulus-response " mechanism. There is a stimulus, followed by a response; it appears simple and e...