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Human beings do not observe the world from the outside, but rather are fullyembedded in it. The sciences, however, often give the observer both a "god'seye" perspective and substantial a~priori knowledge. Motivated by W. RossAshby's statement, "the theory of the Black Box is merely the theory of realobjects or systems, when close attention is given to the question, relatingobject and observer, about what information comes from the object, and how itis obtained" (Introduction to Cybernetics, 1956, p. 110), I develop here analternate picture of the world as a black box to which the observer is coupled.Within this framework I prove purely-classical analogs of the "no-go" theoremsof quantum theory. Focussing on the question of identifying macroscopicobjects, such as laboratory apparatus or even other observers, I show that thestandard quantum formalism of superposition is required to adequately representthe classical information that an observer can obtain. I relate these resultsto supporting considerations from evolutionary biology, cognitive anddevelopmental psychology, and artificial intelligence.

Building the Observer into the System: Toward a Realistic Description of Human Interaction with the World