I’d question how you would evaluate if something is instrumentally useful when you can only judge something in terms of other maps.
Not in terms of other maps, but in terms of its predictive power: Something is more useful if it allows you to more accurately predict future observations. The observations themselves, of course, go through many layers of processing before we get a chance to compare them with the model in question. I warmly recommend the relevant SSC blog posts:
Not in terms of other maps, but in terms of its predictive power: Something is more useful if it allows you to more accurately predict future observations. The observations themselves, of course, go through many layers of processing before we get a chance to compare them with the model in question. I warmly recommend the relevant SSC blog posts:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-uncertainty/
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/06/predictive-processing-and-perceptual-control/
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/12/toward-a-predictive-theory-of-depression/
https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/03/20/translating-predictive-coding-into-perceptual-control/