perm filename OBSERV.MEN[F75,JMC] blob
sn#194389 filedate 1976-01-01 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
COMMENT ā VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC PAGE DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002 #. In determining the basic concepts of a theory, it seems
C00005 ENDMK
Cā;
#. In determining the basic concepts of a theory, it seems
unreasonable to give observability much weight. For both a priori
and empirical reasons, intelligent systems may be expected to be many
levels of organization above the basic physics, and what might be
expected to be directly observable either in the external world or of
their own internal processes seems highly contingent on evolution or
design. Of course, we suffer the consequence that our theories are
necessarily connected with observation in complicated ways so that
their confirmation or refutation is not as clean cut as would be
desirable.
As to whether a man sees a dog or sees a brown patch, we want
both. Certainly a computer program that sees a dog by processing a
TV image will have a relations between its internal state and the dog
and also relations between its internal state and a copy of the TV
image stored in memory. A proper theory of such a program will
involve both relations.
&. It is now accepted that the basic concepts of physical
theories are far removed from observation. The human sense organs
are many levels of organization removed from quantum mechanical
states, and we have learned to accept the complication this causes in
verifying physical theories. Experience in trying to make intelligent
computer programs suggests that the basic concepts of the common
sense world are also complex and not always directly accessible to
observation. In particular, the common sense world is not a
construct from sense data, but sense data play an important role.
When a man or a computer program sees a dog, we will need both the
relation between the observer and the dog and the relation between
the observer and the brown patch in order to construct a good theory
of the event.