In the last section, I argued for looking not only at the three great spheres but at the triple overlap of all three spheres - the person in the centre. In this section, I will argue further that we must also look into the person in the centre. Each of us has a subjective map of the objective world. Figure 6-2 shows an extended version of the model presented in Figure 3-2. The Triad Model, presented in Figure 3-2, represents the objective world of concrete things and processes (roughly things which can be photographed and processes which can be filmed). The extended model, presented in Figure 6-2, adds a second story representing the subjective map of that objective world.

You as actor are represented at the level of action in the objective world; you as thinker are represented at the level of thought in the subjective map. Your actions in the objective world are determined by your conceptions in your subjective map. Whereas your conceptions of the ecosphere, the sociosphere, the technosphere, and the relationships between them are very important, your conception of yourself, represented by the triple overlap of the three spaces in the subjective map, is most important of all. The next section argues that there is currently a major shift in our conception of ourselves. This will have a dramatic effect on our actions in the objective world and thus on that world in the future.

I argued in the section above that social change is a function of human actions. Those actions are in turn a function of plans, which are directed toward goals, which are determined by values. Trends are thus the surface symptoms of actions, which are based on underlying plans and goals, visions and values, which are within the domain of the subjective map. It is this second tier of the model which should be the focus of the search for causes of social change. Science has, alas, tended to focus on the objective world of facts and actively ignore the subjective maps of values. The separation of facts and values in traditional science could well be visualized as a cutting of the links between the objective world and the subjective map.