The Regenerative Approach Toward Emotional and Awareness States The regenerative approach is a recent conceptual completion of the

systems approach which amplifies the four conventional notions with a fifth: regeneration. A preprint article relating to that can be found here. From linear systems theory, we have the notion of appropriate state variable choice / identification. The purpose of this article is not to trivialize human awareness or emotional states but to understand them, attempt to quantify / categorize them, and attempt to develop a meaningfully accurate relationship framework between them. The purpose is also to address limitations of the conventional systems approach and linear systems theory, specifically: acausal / anticipatory concerns. We have many moods and emotions: anger, fear, hate, envy, lust, compassion, melancholy, jadedness,.. The list seems endless. However, it is finite and certainly our capacity to feel any subset of them simultaneously is finite. Also, we may attempt to quantify the level to which we feel each emotion categorically: none, a little, a moderate amount, an extreme amount. We may assign numeric values to these phrases in order to non-trivially quantify them: 0, 1, 2, and 3 respectively. For instance, if we report the subset: fear: 0, hate: 1, anger: 3, that would imply we are not aware of other less relevant emotions and that anger dominates our current mood. That is our current simplified emotional state. Awareness is less diverse but subtly more complex. We can be aware of our emotions, our physical state, our local surroundings, our distal surroundings using technology (via sensory projection elsewhere), and about others feelings and awarenesses. We have identified five distinct kinds of awareness but there may be more. We may also quantify them as above: none, a little, a moderate amount, and an extreme amount; again, we may choose a numeric correspondence scheme: 0, 1, 2, and 3. At a later date, resolution may be increased by choosing a wider numeric spread. Conceptually and for completeness, we must address the anticipatory aspect(s). Realistically, we may have anticipatory capacities associated with each kind of awareness. In order to keep things as simple as possible initially, we identify one anticipatory capacity associated with each individual human mind/psyche. As a reminder in this article, we are assigning a finite set of emotional states, five kinds of awareness, and one anticipatory capacity as state variables. Their connectivity or interrelationships (likely a time-varying structure itself) combined with the state variables, at any instant of time, comprise the human psyche. This is the core thesis of this article. The remainder of this article is devoted to discovering the connectivity network mentioned above. There are two broad approaches for that: experimental and theoretical. Lets address the former first. This author can envision at least two experimental scenarios where data can be mined: 1. The Jealous Couple Scenario: A couple is interview to determine the strength of their relationship and commitment aspects, if required, the male is interviewed to determine what

physical characteristics determine a desirable female mate (no intentional slighting of gay/lesbian couples is intended; this is purely for initial data gathering / simplification concerns), a set of three distinct female models is held in reserve, according to the male specifications, a female model is chosen by experimenters to deliberately provoke a jealousy attack in the female of the couple, the model uses a consistent (among couples) methodology to provoke a response from the female, essentially, she makes a blatant sexual pass at the male in front of the female, once a reaction is clearly observed, the couple is separated and interviewed by staff. Affective states are reported and recorded. Awareness states are reported and recorded. A suitable time delay is allowed perhaps allowing each person individually to observe a relaxing natural scene / documentary. Affective and awareness states are reported and recorded again. The accuracy of others feelings and awarenesses awareness is noted for both male and female for both time instances. The purpose of this experimental scenario should be obvious by now: to assess the time-varying connectivity and accuracy of the five kinds of awareness - and - jealousy (how strong emotions cloud / twist our awarenesses). This author predicts some interesting and likely counterintuitive results. To be sexually fair, we should repeat the scenario changing the sex of the model and apply them to the female. The idea behind these two scenarios is pure linear systems theory: a consistent input is applied to a dynamical system, then states are measured over time to determine system structure. The Jealous Couple Scenario may be repeated with fear. Of course, care must be exercised so that no participants safety is actually in jeopardy. Multiple emotion scenarios may be designed to detect any synergistic effects (positive/negative). 2. At some point, our technology will allow visual (3D representation) inspection of emotional states. We will be able to identify strong emotional states in our CNS with categories of activity. Statistical analysis will be performed on those states and categories refining them making them more appropriate and meaningful. Whether or not we will ever develop technology to inspect the five kinds of awareness is something else. They may have subtle aspects undetectable by any technology. However, there is one proven way to investigate connectivity schemas: theory. We can devise categorically distinct connectivity schemas and simulate them on digital computers. How we implement the connectivity and specifically the anticipatory component is critical to approach validity. Again, we do not desire to trivialize human experience to the point of inanity; we simply desire to understand if modeling awareness and affect in this way is both appropriate and meaningful. This author recommends a healthy dose of caution: do not push the scenarios to extreme jealousy or fear such that violence is evoked. Make the stimulants/inputs reasonable such that all participants know before-hand these are mock scenarios intended to provoke a modest emotional response. Recall the experimental scenario where prisoners were apparently tortured to the equivalent point of violating personal safety. We do not wish to repeat these obvious ethics violations; knowledge and understanding can be gained safely and respectfully.