SUBCONSCIOUS INTERACTION WITH CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH TASK SETTING (3)

Human mind could be a precious resource to assist us in designing , understanding and performing
autonomous systems. Subconscious is an autonomous system. Carl Gustav Jung’s Psychology and
Religion book ponders on the autonomy of the Unconscious Mind.

The brain determines our thoughts and behaviors through tasksets.

A task set is a configuration of cognitive processes that is actively maintained for subsequent task
performance[1] . A task is the representation of a set of instructions required to perform an activity accurately;
a task set is the set of representations and processes that enable execution of the task [2] .

Subconscious interacts with consciousnes through tasksets. We set goals to our subconscious by
deciding what to do when.

Prospective memory (PM) is defined as remembering to perform an action in the future. There are
two main types of PM according to their different cues: event-based prospective memory (EBPM)
and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) (Einstein and McDaniel, 1990). Both EBPM and
TBPM are necessary for daily life. EBPM is the remembering what one does when a certain target
event occurs. For example, one remembers to buy milk when one passes by the supermarket. TBPM
is involved when one has to perform an action in relation to time, such as returning a library book
before a due date [3] .

We use tasks and tasksets to live our daily lives. In the case of two individuals this is why it is
important to set common goals to come to a shared understanding. You can always hit or shout at a
small child but you cannot do so to an automatic system the size of a football field like a large
airplane.
Performing on a large autonomous system requires not only the ‘informed consent’, namely the
actual command to execute but also a through understanding of the TASKSET that lies behind it.

Autonomy [4,5] —the capability of an agent to properly act by itself in a changing, uncertain world— seems to
requiere consciousness.

An autonomous system [6] is one that can achieve a given set of goals in a changing environment—gathering
information about the environment and working for an extended period of time without human control or
intervention.

Autonomy requires that the system be able to do the following:

1- Sense the environment and keep track of the system’s current state and location.
2- Perceive and understand disparate data sources.
3- Determine what action to take next and make a plan.
4- Act only when it is safe to do so, avoiding situations that pose a risk to human safety, property or the
autonomous system itself.

Flybywire vs mechanical control

In the future [5] , developers will interact with autonomous systems via a software platform that abstracts the
hardware, abstracts the sensors and pushes the interface to a higher-level set of software services via an
application programming interface (API). This will free developers from having to interact with a specific type of
LiDAR, radar or camera in use—and enable them to simply request information via high-level services
provisioned with APIs. Connectivity will be similarly abstracted, so the communications within the car, with
other vehicles and with the cloud will be simpler for a developer to implement without requiring a deep
understanding of a specific communication technology.

What is
FlyByWire A320?
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a computer controlled system that in the A320 series and A330 / A340 and now the new
A350 aircraft replaces the conventional flight controls of an aircraft (like those found in the 737) with an
electronic system

Traditional flight control systems in most small aircraft are either a web of pulleys and cables or metal rods and
joints. Larger aircraft often use hydraulics to make the controls easy to move at high speeds. Newer fly-by-wire
control systems pull out all that hardware and replace it with sensors, actuators, and wires. Instead of a direct
line of control from aircraft yoke to control surface, the aircraft is left with a yoke, sensors, a computer to
process the inputs, wires, and an actuator at the aileron, rudder, or elevator.

REFERENCES:
[1] Katsuyuki Sakai; Task set and prefrontal cortex, Annu Rev Neurosci, 2008;31:219-45.
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; email: ksakai@m.u-tokyo.ac.jp

[2] D. W. Schneider, G. Logan; 2 Tasks, Task Sets, and the Mapping Between Them ;Pages 27–44, June 2014

[3] Hongxia Zhang, Weihai Tang2† and Xiping Liu; The Effect of Task Duration on Event-Based Prospective
Memory: Front. Psychol. 8:1895.
[4] GRANT GILLETT, INTENTION, AUTONOMY, AND BRAIN EVENTS, Bioethics, 2009

[5] Ultimate Guide to Autonomous Systems; Autonomous Systems | Ultimate Guides | BlackBerry
QNX
[6] Ricardo Sanz1, inter alia, Consciousness and Understanding in Autonomous Systems https://ceur-
ws.org/Vol-2287/paper23.pdf ,-Alonso2 1 Autonomous Systems Laboratory Universidad Polit´ecnica
de Madrid, 28006 Madrid,