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Obstacles
1 min read · 236 words
An obstacle is a condition between the organism’s current position and its target — and the system’s response to it reveals more than the obstacle itself.
The hardware encounters obstacles constantly. The effort is directed. Something intervenes. The path to the target is blocked, complicated, or rerouted. The system produces a frustration signal (the Frustration entry) and begins processing: go around it, go through it, find another path, or abandon the target.
The relevant data is in the processing, not the obstacle. The system that consistently stops at obstacles has installed a belief that obstacles are evidence that the direction is wrong. The system that consistently fights through obstacles regardless of the cost has installed a belief that all obstacles must be overcome. Neither is universally correct. Some obstacles are genuine barriers that warrant a change of direction. Some are friction that warrants sustained effort. The operator’s job is reading which one this specific obstacle is.
The diagnostic: is this obstacle between me and a target I’ve chosen — or between me and a target the system is pursuing on automation? Is the cost of overcoming it proportionate to the value of the target? Is there a route around it that I’m not seeing because the frustration has narrowed my processing?
Obstacles are data about the terrain. They are not verdicts about the direction.