Naturally intelligent systems do not passively await sensory stimulation.
They are constantly active, trying to predict (and actively elicit) the streams of sensory information before they arrive…. Systems like that are already (pretty much constantly) poised to act.Andy Clark, Surfing Uncertainty
We act for the the evolving streams of sensory information that keep us viable and serve our ends… perception and action in a circular causal flow.
This book is about how human brains perceive based on predictions and prediction errors. I used to think we take in light from our eyes, assemble all that into objects that we perceive, and then respond to those perceptions. But it’s different: we are always guessing at what we expect to perceive, breaking that down into objects and then into expected light levels, and then processing only differences from us that expectation. We turn that into possibilities for our next action.
We don’t sit around waiting to notice something and then respond! We’re always predicting, and then thinking what would we like to see or explore next, and then acting toward that imagined reality.
Teams are intelligent systems like this too. Development teams (symmathesies) operating software in production have expectations of what it should be outputting. We are constantly developing better visibility, and stronger expectations. Then we want that output (data, usage volume) to change, so we take action on the software.
Teams and developers, as intelligent systems in conjunction with software, need to choose our own actions. Acting and perceiving are interlinked. Some of that perception is from the higher levels of organization, like: what does our company want to accomplish? What are people asking us to change? But in the end we have to act in ways we choose, and look for differences in what we perceive, to learn and grow.
Notice that “act as I choose” is very different from “do what I want” or worse, “do what I feel like doing” (which rarely corresponds to what will make me happy). I choose what to do based on input from people and systems around me, according to what might be useful for the team and organization and world.
If my boss wants something done in the code, they’d better convince me that it’s worth doing. Because only if I understand the real “why” can I predict what success looks like, and then I can make the million big and tiny decisions that are the work of software development. Does memory use matter? What is permanent API and what internal? Which off-happy-path cases are crucial, and how can I make the rest fall back safely? Where should this new function or service live?
If I choose to do the work only because they said to, only so that I can check off a box, I am not gonna make these umpteen decisions in ways that serve future-us.
Our job is making choices. We need to the background and understanding to choose our high-level work, so that we can make skillful choices at the low levels.
Intelligent systems don’t wait around to be told what to do. We are constantly looking for the next input that we like better, and creating that input. Act in order to perceive in order to act. This is living.