智能体调控环境时，观察者可将其行为解读为对外部世界的信念更新。
A "good regulator theorem" for embodied agents
- 通过观察者视角定义信念更新机制，构建更普适的模型概念。
- 无论调节外部环境或内部状态，系统都可被解释为拥有环境模型。
- 解释了为何看似无模型的系统仍符合调控原理，适用于各类智能体。
康奈特与阿什比曾提出著名论断：‘任何优秀的调控器必须是其所调控系统的模型。’ 人工生命领域存在许多看似无需模型即可完成任务的系统，挑战了该定理的普适性。本文表明，可通过另一种方式重述这一直觉：只要智能体能执行调控任务，观察者即可将其行为解释为对环境的‘信念’，并根据感官输入进行‘更新’。这种信念更新机制构成了一种比原版更精妙的模型定义，且适用范围更广。但关键在于，模型并非系统固有属性，而是由观察者赋予的。该定理不依赖于经典控制论设定，同样适用于调节自身内部状态的情况。模型可能极为简单，这正是看似反例得以解释的原因。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In a classic paper, Conant and Ashby claimed that "every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system." Artificial Life has produced many examples of systems that perform tasks with apparently no model in sight; these suggest Conant and Ashby's theorem doesn't easily generalise beyond its restricted setup. Nevertheless, here we show that a similar intuition can be fleshed out in a different way: whenever an agent is able to perform a regulation task, it is possible for an observer to interpret it as having "beliefs" about its environment, which it "updates" in response to sensory input. This notion of belief updating provides a notion of model that is more sophisticated than Conant and Ashby's, as well as a theorem that is more broadly applicable. However, it necessitates a change in perspective, in that the observer plays an essential role in the theory: models are not a mere property of the system but are imposed on it from outside. Our theorem holds regardless of whether the system is regulating its environment in a classic control theory setup, or whether it's regulating its own internal state; the model is of its environment either way. The model might be trivial, however, and this is how the apparent counterexamples are resolved.
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