The work of these three, while certainly augmented by many others, suggests an interesting model for the progressive establishment of the human mind as an operating unit. MacLean offers a model of brain structure that suggests a formative process for the evolutionary development of the physiological facilities of the brain. It posits an embodiment of subsystem based architecture that has many of the characteristics of human designed systems, including that of computers. Overlaid on this physiological structure, Donald’s work can be interpreted to suggest an information storage structure and processing model that facilitates the manner in which the human mind acquires and stores knowledge derived from the human sensori-motor and autonomic systems. If we adopt this combination conceptual model, Piaget’s work can then be interpreted to express how humans systematically provision this storage structure and processing paradigm. In essence, this provisioning operation includes what we might think of in mechanical systems as setup and calibration operations that are effected through heuristic processes which consist in trials where success brings validation and failure prompts another trial. In all three cases, extremely similar models are observed in virtually all ostensibly normal individuals. Thus, we observe the apparent operation of a feedback loop that encompasses more than just physiological characteristics, that one might assume are the sole targets of DNA conveyance, and instead evokes the recurring form, including content, of cognition.

Therefore, with that model in mind, including our questions regarding the feedback loop mechanisms whose operations we seem to observe, let us consider in just a bit more detail the suggestions and observations of these respective models.

The Matter of Mind

Paul MacLean proposed that the current structure of the human brain has developed from three distinct phases of the long evolution of the vertebrates. Further to this phylogenetic perspective, he has taken the perspective of anatomy, chemistry, neurology, surgery, and other measures to identify the descent of these three constituents of the human brain. He has termed the resulting modern structure the triune brain, meaning the brain with three parts. His proposition is not that humans actually function with three distinct brains, but rather that those three components of the brain operate in an integrated fashion with a different focus of function within each part. From a computer perspective, this appears very much like a major system functioning through the interactive activities of three subsystems. None of these subsystems is entirely independent, but all three do exhibit aspects of autonomy in certain situations and in certain areas. Here, as throughout this book, we will be faithful to our reference material, in this case The Triune Brain in Evolution. We make no independent pronouncement in the domain of neurophysiology. Rather, we follow MacLean in his reviewing the measured steps of cumulative development of the brain as a progressively enhanced system achieved through the evolution of vertebrate species. During embryonic growth in particular, the ontogenetic development of the individual human provides striking illustration of these three subsystems. Further advances in the understanding of the ontogenetic development of the individual, along the lines of Sean Carrol’s presentation of evolutionary developmental biology in Endless Forms Most Beautiful, are likely to help refine MacLean’s model.

From our perspective, the triune brain is an excellent metaphorical match to the structure of a wide variety of computer systems. It is a brain comprised of subsystems, forming the interactive architecture of the complete brain system, each providing specialized facilities in distinct areas. As we will discuss in more detail just a bit later, computer systems typically have a low-level subsystem that deals with the interface between real-time actions, activities driven mostly by

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