There are already sensors that can read a pilot's brain waves and anticipate what he wants to look at next. Before the pilot even consciously knows that he wants to look at a weapon status display, for example, the cybernetic system can infer the intention from his brain waves and pop up the display. If he thinks it is time to look at the radar, before he could speak the command, the system reads his brain waves, pops up the radar display, and puts away the weapon status display.

How does it work? During a training phase, the system reads brain waves and gets explicit commands through a button panel. The system analyses the brain waves, looking for certain unique features that it can associate with the intention (inferred from the command from the button panel) to see the radar display, and other unique features to associate with the intention to look at weapon status, and so on. The system must be trained individually for each pilot. Later, during operation, whenever the system sees the unique brain wave patterns, it "knows" what the pilot wants to do.

The implications of technology like this for automobiles is amazing. Already, things like ABS are a kind of rudimentary cybernetics. When a driver stands all over the brake pedal, it is assumed that his intention is to stop, not to skid. The ABS system "knows," in a manner of speaking, the driver's intention and manages the physical system of the car to accomplish that goal. So, instead of being a mere mechanical linkage between your foot and the brakes, the brake pedal becomes a kind of intentional, DWIM control. Same goes for traction control and ASR. When the driver is on the gas, the system "knows" that he wants to go forward, not to spin out or do doughnuts. In the case of TC, the system regulates the torque split to the drive wheels, whether there be two or four. In the case of ASR, the system backs off the throttle when there is wheel spin. Cybernetics again.

ABS, TC, and ASR exist now. What about the future? Consider steer-by-wire. CyberCar, the total cybernetic car, infers the driver's intended direction from the steering wheel position. It makes corrections to the actual direction of the steered wheels and to the throttle and brakes much more quickly and smoothly than any driver can do. Coupled with slip angle*** sensors [1] and inertial guidance systems, perhaps based on miniaturized laser/fibre optic gyros (no moving parts), cybernetic steering, throttle, and brake controls will make up a formidable racing car that could drive a course in practically optimal fashion given only the driver's desired racing line.

In an understeering situation, when a car is not turning as much as desired, a common driver mistake is to turn the steering wheel more. That is a mistake, however, only because the driver is treating the steering wheel as an intentional control rather than the physical control it actually is. In CyberCar, however, the steering wheel is an intentional control. When the driver adds more lock in a corner, CyberCar "knows" that the driver just wants more steering. Near the limits of adhesion, CyberCar knows that the appropriate physical reaction is, in fact, some weight transfer to the front, either by trailing throttle or a little braking, and a little less steering wheel lock. When the fronts hook up again, CyberCar can immediately get back into the throttle and add a little more steering lock, all the while tracking the driver's desires through the intentional steering wheel in the cockpit. Similarly, in an oversteer situation, when the driver gives opposite steering lock, CyberCar knows what to do. First, CyberCar determines whether the condition is trailing throttle oversteer (TTO) or power oversteer (PO). It can do this by monitoring tyre loads through suspension deflection and engine torque output over time. In TTO, CyberCar adds a little throttle and counter steers. When the drive wheels hook up again, it modulates the throttle and dials in a little forward lock. In PO, CyberCar gently trails off the throttle and counter steers. All the while, CyberCar monitors driver's intentional inputs and the physical status of the car at the rate of several kilohertz (thousands of times per second).