Understanding 69
In my trivial example, the cat could eat a wire and change the operation of the black box. Now there is an open circuit where none existed before. If this happened, the output would change and we would need a new theory to explain it. If the circuit was attached to a missile control system or a life support system, you would really want a full understanding without waiting. It’s humans nature to try to open black boxes. This is what MRI scans, X-rays, particle accelerators and all our other tools of scientific investigation are for. We want to open all the black boxes of nature and see what is going on inside: simply waiting to see what happens is not acceptable.
In a sense, we live in a black box. We experience the world through our senses, seeing with our eyes and feeling with our hands. The brain
never directly experiences anything; it only infers the likelihood of
ae et ~ Scene from The Miracle Worker. Helen Keller
pictured at the moment she understood language.
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