Awareness in Brain, Society, and Beyond: A Bridge Connecting Raw Data to Perception and Cognition

The goal of computational awareness (CA) research is to build systems that are aware. Awareness is related to a system´s ability to perceive, feel, or develop conscious experiences. For cybernetics, the study of awareness is fundamental. In this article, first, we describe awareness and perception in the brain and introduce spatiotemporal dynamic models with intermittent phase transitions. Then, we propose a three-valued logic model that can be useful to interpret awareness mechanisms. Finally, CA applications in human societies are used as examples to show the potential impact of CA in the age of big data. There are still many theoretical and practical problems to solve. This article describes our diverse views, exposing various aspects of CA. We hope that this comprehensive review helps to promote this emerging field and that interested researchers will join CA research and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society (SMCS) Technical Committee on Awareness Computing so that we can promote this emerging field together.