Objects Contstructed from Perceptual Functions

[From Bruce Gregory (970919.1510 EDT)]

Martin Taylor 970919 10:00--

I argued in Durango '93 that these attractors could be seen as
"objective" facts of the world, much as you now seem to be
arguing. But like all "objective" facts of the world, they are
constructed by the perceptual functions of the perceiver.
"Objective" facts _earn_ their objectivity by serving well when
their perceptions are efficiently and consistently
controllable, and (I suspect) in no other way.

I've mentioned my increasing awareness that students do not in
general employ explicit models when they make predictions.
Models, I now see, have not _earned_ a place in the students'
worlds, because the students are yet unable to control these
high level perceptions. Before such control can be exercised,
models exist only as inert "objects of knowledge" rather than as
powerful tools.

bruce