---
abstract: 'Once upon a time, there were two large black boxes, A and B, connected by a long insulated copper wire. On box A there were two buttons, marked *a* and *b*, and on box B there were three lights, red, green, and amber. Scientists studying the behavior of the boxes had observed that whenever you pushed the *a* button on box A, the red light flashed briefly on box B, and whenever you pushed the *b* button on box A, the green light flashed briefly. The amber light never seemed to flash. They performed a few billion trials, under a very wide variety of conditions, and found no exceptions. There seemed to them to be a causal regularity, which they conveniently summarized thus:'
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creators_name:
- family: Dennett
given: Daniel
honourific: ''
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date: 1992
date_type: published
datestamp: 1998-03-13
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dir: disk0/00/00/02/47
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eprintid: 247
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lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:46
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rev_number: 8
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:26:02
subjects:
- phil-metaphys
- phil-metaphys
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title: 'Two Black Boxes: a Fable'
type: preprint
userid: 38
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