Systems, Man & Cybernetics - April 2015 - 31

interact with technological systems. It was in this realm
that I looked to apply the cybernetic insights concerning
a human physiological regulation to the hybrid capacities
of human and machine when operating in tandem. This
resulted in the notion of adaptive systems in which the relative allocation of performance demand was shared between
the human and his or her computation source of support
in a dynamic manner [9]. In particular, the unique offering
by me and my colleagues was that this adaptation could be
based upon a constellation of physiological signals derived
from both the peripheral and central nervous systems [8].
It is gratifying to note that this foundational concept was
the basis for an extensive U.S. Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency-funded program (AugCog), which used
the ever-blossoming arena of physiological monitoring
technologies to enact this conception in real-time systems
[12]. Of course, allocation processes do not actually specify
particular strategies or profiles for either general load distribution or specific load distribution, and that problem still
tasks the disciplines of human-factors and human-systems
integration to the present time [1].
It remains one of the great conundrums of human understanding as to whether we discover patterns and regularities
that are inherently present in nature or whether we actually impose our own systematic reticulated conceptions
upon nature. Here, cybernetics again comes to the forefront.
It is all too tempting for materialists to see such inherent
regularity as already being in nature simply waiting to be
discovered. It is a seductive proposition that always has to
be questioned. This perspective did, however, underlie the
pragmatic foundation of my own next step with respect to
human-machine interaction.
Hav ing seen how naturally occurring physiological
defense capacities were actually replicated at the level of
psychological (i.e., task performance) response capacities
(see [10]), it was easy to see that the technological prosthetics and orthotics simply extended these inherent human
abilities beyond the range of operation of any lone unaided
individual [4]. As a principle, this notion is termed mimesis,
which represents the imitation of the real world, as by recreating instances of human action and events or portraying
objects found in nature. When the imitation focuses on living systems, then the appropriate term is
biomimesis.
However, as we can easily see, technology also serves to replicate, recapitulate, imitate, and extend human capacities
Interfaces act as
(e.g., an automobile augments locomotion).
the mediating
This branch of development is what I have
elements between the
termed autobiomimesis (see [6]). Here, the
intrinsic feedback loops observed by Wiener
reciprocal sources
in 1950 [16] have now exerted a positively
and destinations
reinforcing effect such that human-machine
hybrids are together exploring and exploitof feedback.
ing niches of opportunity denied to either
one alone. The interface between the two
Ap ri l 2015

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