“Provide a list of wildlife” has subgoal “communicate the concept in my brain to yours” has subgoal “use specific sounds to represent animals”. “Provide a list of wildlife” is not a subgoal of “win the war”.
The supply train is delayed by an enemy attack. Shoring up supplies might be achieved by:
taking resources from the enemy.
hunting wildlife
Seemingly anything can be related to any goal, under some circumstance. “Provide a list of wildlife” might indicate whether there’s anything (or a lot of things) that can potentially be hunted. It can also indicate whether the enemy can subsist off wildlife if they are good at hunting.
Yes, I spoke too strongly. In the weighted causal graph of subgoals, I would bet that “provide a list of wildlife” would be less relevant to the goal “win the war” than “report #bombers”.
My point was less about weight, and more about conditions that make it relevant. Yes, this might treat relevant/not as a binary, but it is an abstraction related to action, for example:
‘orders are about a focus* (while someone scouting may act responsively to changing conditions)’. Arguably, scouting is open ended—the scout knows what might be important (at least if they see it). How things are done in practice here might be worth looking into.
*I’m making this up. The point is, actions can also throw stuff out.
“Provide a list of wildlife” has subgoal “communicate the concept in my brain to yours” has subgoal “use specific sounds to represent animals”. “Provide a list of wildlife” is not a subgoal of “win the war”.
Of wildlife and winning the war:
The supply train is delayed by an enemy attack. Shoring up supplies might be achieved by:
taking resources from the enemy.
hunting wildlife
Seemingly anything can be related to any goal, under some circumstance. “Provide a list of wildlife” might indicate whether there’s anything (or a lot of things) that can potentially be hunted. It can also indicate whether the enemy can subsist off wildlife if they are good at hunting.
Yes, I spoke too strongly. In the weighted causal graph of subgoals, I would bet that “provide a list of wildlife” would be less relevant to the goal “win the war” than “report #bombers”.
My point was less about weight, and more about conditions that make it relevant. Yes, this might treat relevant/not as a binary, but it is an abstraction related to action, for example:
‘orders are about a focus* (while someone scouting may act responsively to changing conditions)’. Arguably, scouting is open ended—the scout knows what might be important (at least if they see it). How things are done in practice here might be worth looking into.
*I’m making this up. The point is, actions can also throw stuff out.