Mary’s Room: Bridging the Gap — What is True Understanding?
Welcome back to our little corner of the internet! Today, let’s explore the theory of Mary’s Room.
A girl (let’s assume she’s called Mary) is put inside of a room. Let’s assume that she has all the resources required to live there for an infinite amount of time (like water and food). This room is unique to most, for it is colourless. Inside of the room there is a somewhat infinite supply of resources to help Mary understand the topic of humans perceiving colour. One day, after a long (but still finite) amount of time, Mary is thrown outside of the room. And she experiences colour for the first time.
Has she learnt anything new?
Well, for the sake of the argument, let’s say she has. Whilst she may be filled with biological knowledge of vision and the scientific perception of colour, experiences add to that knowledge, and one could argue that she is now somewhat “enriched”.
There’s another version of the story that I have briefly touched up in before in a previous post – instead of the room being colourless; inside, it resembles a glorious library filled with books and textbooks that Mary can use to learn French (as an example language). Theoretically, no matter how many hours she spends inside of that room studying French through textbooks and tutorials, she will never truly have the same level of understanding of French as a native speaker.
The argument stated above is also fairly similar — no matter how well-versed or well-spoken she becomes in French within the confines of the room, there are aspects of language, such as cultural nuances, colloquial expressions, and the fluidity of conversation, that can only be grasped through real-world interactions with native speakers.
Simply put, knowing about something through theory isn’t the same as truly understanding it through firsthand experience. For example, studying swimming theoretically won’t make you a swimmer until you actually get in the water. Mary’s story highlights the gap between knowing facts and deeply understanding something through personal experience.
The essence of the question in both versions of the story is whether theoretical knowledge equals genuine understanding. Mary’s Room makes us think about the connection between knowledge and experience, emphasizing that real understanding comes when theory is put into practice and when direct experiences complement what we’ve learned. Whether it’s the vibrant colors of the outside world or the subtleties of a language spoken by natives, Mary realizes that true knowledge involves a dynamic interplay between information and real-life experiences, going beyond mere theoretical understanding.
So where does this link to computing and technology, you may ask? Well, in AI, the Mary’s Room concept highlights the difference between knowing something in theory and applying it in real-world situations. Despite AI models being trained on lots of data, their real-world use often reveals unexpected challenges, showing the gap between theory and practical experience. This gap is obvious when AI makes errors.
Another example of a link with technology is when in human-computer interactions, designers create interfaces based on theory, but true usability is only understood through real user interactions (hence the need for beta testers). This emphasizes the importance of practical understanding in crafting effective tech interfaces.
