title: Two Black Boxes: a Fable
creator: Dennett, Daniel
subject: Metaphysics
subject: Metaphysics
description: Once upon a time, there were two large black boxes, A and B, connected by a long insulated copper wire. On box A there were two buttons, marked *a* and *b*, and on box B there were three lights, red, green, and amber. Scientists studying the behavior of the boxes had observed that whenever you pushed the *a* button on box A, the red light flashed briefly on box B, and whenever you pushed the *b* button on box A, the green light flashed briefly. The amber light never seemed to flash. They performed a few billion trials, under a very wide variety of conditions, and found no exceptions. There seemed to them to be a causal regularity, which they conveniently summarized thus:
date: 1992
type: Preprint
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: text/html
identifier: http://cogprints.org/247/1/twoblack.htm
identifier:   Dennett, Daniel  (1992) Two Black Boxes: a Fable.  [Preprint]     
relation: http://cogprints.org/247/