[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-438469-105":59,"doc-detail-438469-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","what-is-balance-a-vital-mechano-regulation-paradigm","What is Balance? - A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm","","Within minutes of birth, newborn gnu or giraffe stand and walk in an apparently goal-directed way, maintaining postural balance and organized behaviour. In contrast, robots that learn from scratch begin with random flailing and only gradually cohere by internalizing a reward/value signal. The Perspective argues that animate balance should not inherit the Newtonian definition used for inanimate balance, since animals never remain in static mechanical equilibrium, creating the “posture-movement paradox”.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/what-is-balance-a-vital-mechano-regulation-paradigm/438469/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/what-is-balance-a-vital-mechano-regulation-paradigm/438469.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"MrHarris58","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why is Newtonian mechanical equilibrium an inadequate definition for animate balance?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Animals need to move and are never in static mechanical equilibrium, making the equilibrium-based definition argue poorly for goal-directed posture and behaviour. This mismatch motivates the “posture-movement paradox”.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article contrast newborn animals with robots learning to balance?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Newborn ungulates begin standing and balancing within minutes of birth in a goal-directed manner, while robots typically start with random flailing and improve over time by learning from reward or feedback signals.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What is the proposed alternative goal for animate balancing?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The Perspective proposes a more fluid, dynamical axiomatic task definition that isolates resisting gravity, enables movement, and subsumes static mechanical equilibrium as a special case. It frames balance as a vital mechano-regulation task, analogous in structure to thermo-regulation.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},438469,1791311104,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},687212988360,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","an open access  journal  \nCitation: Wilkinson, N. M. (2025) . What is Balance? A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm. Open Mind: Discoveries in Cognitive Science, 9, 1982–2004.  \n[https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.257](https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.257)  \nDOI:  \n[https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.257](https://doi.org/10.1162/OPMI.a.257)  \nReceived: 3 July 2025  \nAccepted: 10 October 2025  \nCompeting Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.  \nCorresponding Author:  \nNicholas M. Wilkinson  \n[nwilkinson3@gmail.com](nwilkinson3@gmail.com)  \nCopyright: © 2025 Nicholas M. Wilkinson. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International  \n(CC BY 4.0) license.  \nThe MIT Press  \nREPORT  \nWhat is Balance?  \nA Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm  \nNicholas M. Wilkinson  \nIndependent researcher  \nKeywords: mechano-regulation, balance, gravity, buoyancy, homeostasis, prenatal, development  \nABSTRACT  \nWithin minutes of birth a newborn gnu or giraffe works to stand and walk, asserting postural balance and organised animate behaviour in an apparently goal-directed manner. In contrast, robots learning to stand and walk from scratch begin with random flailing, the behaviour cohering over time as the robot internalises some reward/value signal. How does the newborn gnu ‘innately know’ what goal to aim for, and decide to work towards it? How could similar goal-directed balance learning be implemented in robots? Currently, animate balance inherits its axiomatic definition from the Newtonian formulation for inanimate balance; static mechanical equilibrium. This is arguably inappropriate for animate balance, because animals need to move and are never in static mechanical equilibrium, giving rise to the ‘posture-movement paradox’. The present Perspective proposes a more fluid, dynamical axiomatic task definition and goal which (a) isolates resisting gravity, (b) admits and enables movement, and (c) subsumes static mechanical equilibrium as a special case. This novel definition is founded upon inevitable biophysical requirements and observable developmental process. The article explains how animals apprehend and embed this goal through prenatal development suspended in equidense amniotic fluid, and then are challenged to self-maintain it by the perinatal transition. The account entails a paradigmatic shift in putative physiological organisation and associated conceptual framework for balance; from a subsidiary sensorimotor control task to a vital mechano-regulation task, organisationally akin to thermo-regulation. This vital mechano-regulation model of balance has practical implications and implies a range of predictions.  \nINTRODUCTION  \nResisting gravity is a fundamental and constant requirement for life on Earth (Anken & Rahmann, 2002; Vinogradova et al., 2021) . ‘Antigravity’ movements are a standard diagnostic of newborn human health (Miyagishima et al., 2016; Piper et al., 1992) . Many newborn ungulates rapidly and deliberately work to stand and balance minutes after birth (Vanden Hole et al., 2017) . In contrast, robots learning to balance from scratch start with random flailing, and gradually improve in response to a reward signal or other feedback (Liang et al., 2018; Radosavovic et al., 2024; Rieffel & Mouret, 2018) . How is this task defined in the newborn animal (Körding, 2007; Lyon & Kuchling, 2021), such that they seem to know what to do from the start, whilst robots currently do not? Is this goal-directed behaviour (Di Paolo, 2010 ; Heylighen, 2023)? If so, what is the goal, how is it established and embedded developmentally, and could the same goal be instantiated in robots? How could a developmental system become organised around an intrinsically unstable, non-equilibrium goal (Heylighen, 2023)?  \nThe present contribution addresses these questions, proposing a novel axiomatic task definition for animate balancing. Apprehending the argument requires confluence of multiple novel concepts. As a result, the reader may fi","cbCaijvx8v2Kk3xU","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaijvx8v2Kk3xU","pdf",981674,23,"English","# What is Balance? A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm\n## Background: resisting gravity and robotic balance\n## Newtonian balance and the posture-movement paradox\n## Proposed shift: a vital mechano-regulation goal","[{\"question\":\"Why is Newtonian mechanical equilibrium an inadequate definition for animate balance?\",\"answer\":\"Animals need to move and are never in static mechanical equilibrium, making the equilibrium-based definition argue poorly for goal-directed posture and behaviour. This mismatch motivates the “posture-movement paradox”.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article contrast newborn animals with robots learning to balance?\",\"answer\":\"Newborn ungulates begin standing and balancing within minutes of birth in a goal-directed manner, while robots typically start with random flailing and improve over time by learning from reward or feedback signals.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the proposed alternative goal for animate balancing?\",\"answer\":\"The Perspective proposes a more fluid, dynamical axiomatic task definition that isolates resisting gravity, enables movement, and subsumes static mechanical equilibrium as a special case. It frames balance as a vital mechano-regulation task, analogous in structure to thermo-regulation.\"}]","What is Balance? - A Vital Mechano-Regulation Paradigm | PDF",1790685460,58]