Control systems are systematically correlated to features of their environment, particularly the variable they control and their mechanisms for manipulating it. This correlation is achieved by some sort of evidence processor, for example, evolution or a deliberative human designer.
They work either because they were designed to by people or because evolution stumbled on something that happened to work. No disagreement there. What I’ve been at pains to emphasize is what is in the control system and what is not. Unless one is clear about what is actually present in the control system, it is impossible to understand how it operates—see the recent confusion about the concept of a model.
In particular, the reasons for what is in a control system being in it are among the things that are not to be found in the control system. The mechanism by which it works is completely different from the mechanism by which it was created. To discover how it works, the primary source is the mechanism itself. It is not unknown for a designer to be mistaken about how his invention really works, and “reproductive fitness” will not predict any particular mechanism, nor illuminate its operation. We already know that mammals can regulate their body temperature: “reproductive fitness” is merely an allusion to a very general mechanism that happened to come up with the phenomenon, but tells nothing about how the mammals do it.
In the case of my running examples, there is no Bayescraft* being performed by the systems themselves. That it may have happened elsewhere does not illuminate their operation.
* I suspect this word may be being stretched as well. I have understood it to mean Bayesian reasoning as a self-conscious mental art, as practiced and taught by the fictional beisutsukai, but scarcely attained to in the real world, except fitfully by occasional geniuses, and certainly not performed at all by the blind idiot god. But sometimes it seems to be being used to mean any process describable in Bayesian terms.
What I’ve been at pains to emphasize is what is in the control system and what is not. Unless one is clear about what is actually present in the control system, it is impossible to understand how it operates—see the recent confusion about the concept of a model.
Seriously, you can stop belaboring that point. I am well aware that the control system does not itself process evidence into correlation between itself and its environment or contain a mechanism to do so. I have also explained that the reason it does not need to process evidence to be successful is that an outside evidence processor* has created the control system with sufficient correlation to accomplish its task. Yes, we can understand specifically how that correlation causes success in particular control systems independently of understanding the source of the correlation. So what? This explanation is not the one true cause. Why is it surprising to the theory that reality funneling power comes from Bayescraft, that there is an intermediate cause between Bayescraft and the successful reality funneling?
* I consider processing evidence into correlation of something with its environment to be the core feature of Bayescraft. Processing the evidence into correlation with models that can be extended by logical deduction is an advanced feature that explains the vast difference in effectiveness of deliberative human intelligence, which uses it, and evolution, which does not.
They work either because they were designed to by people or because evolution stumbled on something that happened to work. No disagreement there. What I’ve been at pains to emphasize is what is in the control system and what is not. Unless one is clear about what is actually present in the control system, it is impossible to understand how it operates—see the recent confusion about the concept of a model.
In particular, the reasons for what is in a control system being in it are among the things that are not to be found in the control system. The mechanism by which it works is completely different from the mechanism by which it was created. To discover how it works, the primary source is the mechanism itself. It is not unknown for a designer to be mistaken about how his invention really works, and “reproductive fitness” will not predict any particular mechanism, nor illuminate its operation. We already know that mammals can regulate their body temperature: “reproductive fitness” is merely an allusion to a very general mechanism that happened to come up with the phenomenon, but tells nothing about how the mammals do it.
In the case of my running examples, there is no Bayescraft* being performed by the systems themselves. That it may have happened elsewhere does not illuminate their operation.
* I suspect this word may be being stretched as well. I have understood it to mean Bayesian reasoning as a self-conscious mental art, as practiced and taught by the fictional beisutsukai, but scarcely attained to in the real world, except fitfully by occasional geniuses, and certainly not performed at all by the blind idiot god. But sometimes it seems to be being used to mean any process describable in Bayesian terms.
Seriously, you can stop belaboring that point. I am well aware that the control system does not itself process evidence into correlation between itself and its environment or contain a mechanism to do so. I have also explained that the reason it does not need to process evidence to be successful is that an outside evidence processor* has created the control system with sufficient correlation to accomplish its task. Yes, we can understand specifically how that correlation causes success in particular control systems independently of understanding the source of the correlation. So what? This explanation is not the one true cause. Why is it surprising to the theory that reality funneling power comes from Bayescraft, that there is an intermediate cause between Bayescraft and the successful reality funneling?
* I consider processing evidence into correlation of something with its environment to be the core feature of Bayescraft. Processing the evidence into correlation with models that can be extended by logical deduction is an advanced feature that explains the vast difference in effectiveness of deliberative human intelligence, which uses it, and evolution, which does not.