Being and Becoming · Episode 1 of 10 · 5:16
What is a state—and what is a description of a state?
What does one reading tell us about the state?
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In this episode
- 0:00 · Being: the state we want to measure
- 0:30 · A reading is not the whole state
- 0:56 · Choose what counts as the system
- 1:21 · Specify possibilities before drawing conclusions
- 1:57 · Keep audience knowledge out of observer evidence
- 2:22 · Use the reading to filter the possibilities
- 3:26 · Change the notebook; check what stayed fixed
- 4:04 · Can you identify each role?
- 4:41 · Being, becoming, and our descriptions
Complete transcript
This transcript includes the answers to prediction prompts.
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Being: the state we want to measure · 0:00
In this series, Being means the system's state: how it is now. That state is what we are trying to measure. A measurement gives us a reading about the state. Different states can produce the same reading. That matters for Becoming: uncertainty about the state can leave us unsure how it could change after an action. Watch what one reading establishes, what stays unresolved, and how the actual state differs from our estimate.
A reading is not the whole state · 0:30
A small device has a lamp. A reader reports zero, meaning off. Does that reading tell us the whole state of the device? By the end, you should be able to separate what the device is doing from what its observer is justified in writing down. We will build the explanation in three steps: specify the possibilities, compare them with the reading, and check what a notebook edit actually changes.
Choose what counts as the system · 0:56
For this example, the device is our system. The reader and its notebook sit outside that chosen boundary. The boundary marks what our model describes. Drawing a larger boundary could include the reader too, but it would not physically change the device. We return to the device alone. Here the reader simply receives a lamp reading; we are not assuming awareness or an inner experience.
Specify possibilities before drawing conclusions · 1:21
Our teaching model allows four configurations, named u, v, w and z. The letters are names, not measurements. The device occupies one configuration at a time. The four rows list possibilities for one device, not four devices. The lamp output is zero in u and v. Zero means off. The lamp output is one in w and z. One means on. This table is the model: a roster of states and a rule linking each state to its lamp output. No probabilities have been assigned.
Keep audience knowledge out of observer evidence · 1:57
For this illustration, we reveal an audience-only cutaway. The actual configuration is v. Now look at observer access. The observer does not receive our cutaway. Its only reading is still zero. We know the actual state because the illustration tells us. The observer must work from its reading and the known model.
Use the reading to filter the possibilities · 2:22
Start with the full model. Compare each predicted lamp output with the received zero. The row for u predicts zero, so it fits. The row for v also predicts zero, so it fits too. The rows for w and z predict one. They conflict with this exact reading and are ruled out for the current state. The current estimate is therefore u or v. Here, estimate means the possibilities still compatible with the evidence, not a best guess or a probability distribution. The model still contains all four rows. We have narrowed the estimate, not rewritten the output rule. Given only the zero reading, can the observer conclude that the state is u? Use the table, without borrowing the audience cutaway. No. Both u and v fit. Knowing what each row predicts does not tell the observer which of those rows is actual.
Change the notebook; check what stayed fixed · 3:26
Suppose someone replaces u or v with the guess u, without a new reading or any operation on the device. Only the notebook entry changed. The received reading is still zero. In our audience-only cutaway, the actual configuration is still v. We can see that the guess is wrong. The output rule also stayed fixed. Editing an estimate is different from changing the model that relates states to readings. Restore the warranted estimate, u or v. More definite wording cannot create the missing evidence.
Can you identify each role? · 4:04
Match these four pictured items to their roles: system, model, observation record and current estimate. Use what each item does. The device is the system. The full roster and output rule are the model. The received zero is the observation record. The remaining possibilities, u or v, are the current estimate. The actual state is the one configuration occupied by the device. In our illustration it stayed v throughout.
Being, becoming, and our descriptions · 4:41
Being asks what state the specified system is in now. Becoming asks how it changes. To describe either, keep the system and its actual state separate from the model, the observation record and the current estimate. This lesson held the device fixed while we changed what was written about it. A change in a description is not, by itself, a change in the device. Next, we ask how available observations group the possibilities, and which differences remain hidden. Keep u or v as the unresolved pair for the observer.