A novel apparatus and method for controlling a system with multiple observable variables is disclosed. The apparatus and method disclosed use elements of the bottom-up and top-down strategies of artificial intelligence to provide a control system that is able to learn without a training set of information, and that has an learning process that can handle any amount of input data, i.e., cannot become saturated. The control system disclosed is capable of learning and controlling non linear dynamical systems. The control system is also capable of adding additional observable variables or subtracting existing observable variables to determine the state of the plant or system being controlled.