[Inquiry] Re: Prospects for Inquiry Driven Systems

[Jon Awbrey]

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

PRO.  Note 27

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

1.2.1.2.  Observation and Observables

Independently of their distinctness as categories, what is the relation
of the observing and the observable as roles played out in the theater of
observation?  Observation may be the noting of internal or external events,
but more than contemplation it requires the possibility of leaving a record.
Nothing serves as an observation unless notches can be made in a medium that
retains the indenture through time.  On this analysis, observation is found
to be implicated in the very same relation that signs have to their objects.
The observation is a sign of its observed action, event, object.  Despite
the active character of concrete observation, it still seems convenient in
theoretical models, like turing machines, to divide observation across two
abstract components:  An active, empirical part that arranges apparatus for
a complex test and goes looking for what's happening, on unforeseen segments
of tape, and a passive, logical part that represents the elementary reception
and pure contingency of simply noting without changing what's under one's nose,
or input head.

Jon Awbrey

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o