[Inquiry] Re: Prospects for Inquiry Driven Systems

[Jon Awbrey]

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PRO.  Note 23

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1.2.1.  Functions of Observation (cont.)

A system of observation constitutes a projection of the object system's
total behavior into a space of observations, which may be called the space
of "observing" or "observant" states.  The object system's total state space
is not necessarily a well-defined entity.  It can only be imagined to lie in
some unknown extension of the observing space.  How much information a system
may have is defined only relative to a particular system of observation.  It is
often convenient to personify all of the various specifications of observational
systems and spaces under a single name, "the observer".  Every bit of information
that the observed system maintains with respect to the an observer constrains the
system's behavior to half the observed state space that it would otherwise have.
When designing systems it is preferred that this bit of information reside in
a well-defined register, a localized component of anatomical structure in
a designed-to-be-known decomposition of the intelligible object system.

However, the kind of direct product decomposition that would make this feasible
is not always forthcoming.  When investigating a system of unknown design, it
cannot be certain that all its information is embodied in localized components.
It is not even certain that a given observation system is detecting the level,
mode, or site in which the majority of its information is stored.  Even when it
is found that a system occupies a small selection or a narrow distribution of
its possible states and increases its level of informedness with time, this may
yield a quantitative measure of its determination and progress but it does not
offer a motive, neither a reference to the objects nor a sense of the objectives
that may be driving the process.

Jon Awbrey

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