Reflex versus deliberation
TIER 01
Reflex — microseconds
Protective action that cannot wait for a scan cycle or a human. Narrow, deterministic, and verifiable — the spinal cord, not the cortex.
μs
Reflex tier
TIER 02
Supervision — seconds
Trend, optimize, and coordinate across systems. This is where the plant model lives and where most operator interaction happens.
s
Supervisory tier
TIER 03
Judgment — human
Consequential decisions stay with a qualified human. The reflex layer buys them the time to make the call properly.
HUMAN
Decision tier
μs
Reflex tier
s
Supervisory tier
HUMAN
Decision tier
R&D
Vision stage
Reflexes, then judgment.
The architecture that makes a plasma-era plant controllable is not one loop — it is a hierarchy.
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