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Copyright © Sirius Publishing 2006-2019
The Hard Bit - Cybernetics
Before creating a specification for this Model of Human Awareness, it is necessary to discuss some of the key concepts in systems thinking on which it is based. These concepts aren’t always easy to grasp - welcome to ‘The Hard Bit’. You could always skip this bit if you are only interested in the predictions and tests of this model, which you can find in the interesting bit. To do that though would be to miss an understanding of why this model has to be like this based on sound engineering principles and how mathematical and software modeling may be possible of these key concepts.
Cybernetics is about systems (and most things are a system), in particular, systems with feedback. Useful principles are equally well applied to technological systems as to those in humans and other animals, the environment and (in principle) the economy. The subject transcends traditional academic subjects - hence it provides a different perspective on looking at systems and in this case our model of human awareness. Our model involves a number of feedback loops applied at each level of the system, so let’s discover a little about cybernetics and those pesky feedback loops.
In the 1940s a group of academics from different disciplines decided to call the field of 'control and communication theory', whether in the machine or in the animal, by the name Cybernetics, derived from the Greek Kubernetes or steersman.
Norbert Wiener, an applied mathematician, published a book in 1948, called Cybernetics - or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Other people involved were Warren McCulloch, who with Walter Pitts produced the first model of a neuron (the basic processing element of brains), Margaret Mead, and John Von Neumann, a pioneer of Computer Science.
Cybernetics can be described as 'The science of interacting systems’ - as Cybernetics is not restricted to any one area, it can be applied to different systems - and typically these systems, or components within them, interact with each other.
Feedback can be very useful - particularly for control. 
Consider the case of the steersman (which gives the name Cybernetics) responsible for ensuring a boat follows a given course despite the effects of winds and tides.
Without feedback, the steersman would perhaps point the boat towards the correct destination and in effect keep his eyes closed and hope that the boat ends up at the right place. However winds or tides would push the boat off course and the steersman would not know - as he can't see. Inevitably the boat will not go where it should.
The solution - feedback - the course the boat is following is found and that information is fed back to the steersman (achieved by the steersman looking to see where he is going!). If the boat is off course the steersman takes the appropriate action, turning the rudder left or right, to get back on course.
Effectively you see what your system (in this case the boat) is doing, and if it is not doing the right thing (here the boat is off course), suitable corrective action is taken (the rudder is turned left or right).
In our biological system (body) feedback loops extend everywhere. If we get too hot thermo receptors feedback to the brain and we begin to sweat to cool us down. If we get too cold thermo receptors feedback to the brain and we start to shiver which generates heat.