1. Introduction

2. Modes of Perception

3. Perceptual Control Introduction

4. Perceptual Control and imagination

5. Hierarchic Perceptual Control

6. Multiple data sources

7. Learning and Conflict

8. The Bomb in the Hierarchy

9. Degress of Freedom in the individual

10. Degrees of Freedom in the organization

11 Modes of Perception (Reprise)

12. Side Effects and Military intelligence

13. Communication

Degrees of freedom:

2. in the organization

The Senior commander can control only his own 100 df at any moment. Some of those df are used for output of commands (references for perceptions to be controlled) to lower level comanders, who necessarily add their own autonomous df for control of perceptions not based on commands.

A military force has very many effectors. Each person in the force has about 100 degrees of freedom for action, and in a large force, this number may exceed the commander's sensory degrees of freedom. All the same, the commander cannot control any perceptual signals except the 100 or so within himself or herself. Some of the commanders actions that eventually affect his or her perceptions are commands to junior commanders. These commands act as disturbances to some of their controlled perceptions, and result in further commands to yet lower levels. In addition, the lower commanders can add commands of their own, augmenting the number of perceptual degrees of freedom that are controlled within the whole command structure. But the senior commander still is limited to 100 or so. The rest of the command structure exists to provide him or her with control of those degrees of freedom, and with the information needed in order to select which perceptions to control at any moment.

Information Overload in Command Structure

• Degrees of Freedom: At any level of the hierarchy, no more ECSs can be in active control than the number of effector degrees of freedom (as in human).
• Sensor/Effector ratio: The number of effector d.f. is very large (102 times number of personnel), but Commander's df for directing them is limited. Comander cannot control more percepts at any level than his effector degrees of freedom.
• Relevant Control: Intel system must try to ensure Commmander has a way of determining which perceptual degrees of freedom are relevant, and should be controlled at any moment.

The important thing for a commander is to be able to control those perceptions for which the CEVs are significant events and structures on the battlefield. It is not possible for the commander even to sense all that occurs on the battlefield, let alone to determine what should be controlled at all levels of abstraction. But the commander's sensor systems are augmented by his intelligence and other staff, and by the situation interpretations provided by junior commanders and others.
The most important thing that the support staff can do is to provide an alerting system for the senior commander. It comes from their own situation awareness, based on the missions stated by the senior commander. Junior commanders are trying to provide the perceptions the senior commander requested in his or her commands. Interpreters and the Data Fusion system generally should be seeking alerting patterns implicit in the commander's mission statements and in doctrine.