I really like this post, and its statistical-physics-grounded use of gears and abstractions. What you present here might also be a justification of when the design stance of Dennett works: when does considering a system as designed (either by intelligent designers like us or by evolution) is useful to predict its behavior? For example, your ironsmith example shows when one needs to go deeper, either to Dennett’s physical stance or to a lower level of design/gears.
I really like this post, and its statistical-physics-grounded use of gears and abstractions. What you present here might also be a justification of when the design stance of Dennett works: when does considering a system as designed (either by intelligent designers like us or by evolution) is useful to predict its behavior? For example, your ironsmith example shows when one needs to go deeper, either to Dennett’s physical stance or to a lower level of design/gears.