Complete information and practical competence are different claims — without this resolving Mary’s philosophical argument.
Frank Jackson’s Mary knows all the physical facts about colour but has never experienced colour. The philosophical conclusion is contested, and Jackson later rejected his own anti-physicalist interpretation. For organisations, a narrower question remains useful: what can information alone teach, and what requires practice, feedback and transfer?
Complete information and practical competence are different claims — without this resolving Mary’s philosophical argument.
Mary is a brilliant scientist who learns everything about colour vision in a black-and-white environment. When she first sees red, the question is whether she learns something new. Jackson used this as the Knowledge Argument against physicalism, but later distanced himself from that conclusion.
Jackson’s thought experiment does not settle the learning question. In prose-learning experiments, Butler (2010) found better transfer after one week from repeated testing with feedback than from restudying. That study does not establish our AI hypothesis or separate the effects of testing and feedback.
Equal access to declarative information does not guarantee equal discrimination, transfer or adaptive capability when learning experiences differ.
AI transfer to investigate: Generative AI can provide explanations and examples that appear complete; whether they support transfer must be tested separately.
Proposed test, not yet conducted: Compare AI explanations alone with the same explanations plus active discrimination and feedback. Keep core information and time spent learning as comparable as possible. Measure immediate factual knowledge, delayed transfer and performance on novel cases.
Mary is primarily a narrative warning against equating information with capability. The empirical claim must be tested independently.
An explanation can appear complete without demonstrating transfer. A practical test can investigate learning transfer but does not settle the argument about subjective experience.
Jackson (1982), Epiphenomenal Qualia — p. 130
Jackson (2003), Mind and Illusion — opening passage on changed position
Jackson (1982; 2003) discusses the philosophical argument and his changed position. Butler (2010) examines learning transfer. The organisational application involving AI is a separate hypothesis.
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