RM: No, the CV is a perception; it’s what the observer observes. It is definitely not a physical variable in the external environment. It is a FUNCTION of physical variables in the environment.
RM: Actually, it was Bill who said this, not me. So when you say:
EP: Here is an apparent error: Observer’s perceptions are NOT observables - not even to the observer herself without a fantastic neurological apparatus.
RM: You are saying that Bill made an error. I happen to think he didn’t (make an error, that is). In fact, I think this statement:
BP: The Test does not involve p at all. It involves only observables – i.e., the observer’s perceptions.
RM: is a description of the most fundamental assumption of PCT science: PCT is a theory that explains the observer’s perception of the variables a living control system controls.
EP: The critical question here is - in addition to the methodological questions of TCV - whether the input functions of both the controller and observer/tester really are similar or identical. With low-level perceptions and those which have been important in the evolutionary history it is a viable assumption. But with higher level (and continuously developing) cultural perceptions (like just honesty and democracy) it is very susceptible!
RM: It doesn’t matter whether the input functions of controller and observer/tester are the same. The test works if the observer is able to monitor the status of a controlled variable using their own or some sort of artefactual perceptual function (the latter being what were used to determine, for example, the variables controlled by navigating bats).
Best
Rick