Observer Mechanics

by Bruce M. Bennett, Chetan Prakash, Donald D. Hoffman

Observer Mechanics: A Formal Theory of Perception provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of perception. This book provides an approach to the study of perception that attempts to be both general and rigorous.

Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the structure of perceptual capacity. This text then presents the relationship between observers and Turing machines. Other chapters provide a formal framework in which to describe an observer and its objects of perception, and then develop from this framework a perceptual dynamics. This book discusses as well the conditions in which an observer may be said to perceive truly and discusses how stabilities in perceptual dynamics might permit the genesis of higher level observers. The final chapter deals with the relationship between the formalisms of quantum mechanics and observer mechanics.

This book is a valuable resource for physicists, psychophysicists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, and perceptual psychologists.

Genres: Science, Psychology, Philosophy

298 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Calvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Epilogue was great. The math in the body of the book was over my head and almost literally all Greek to me.