# Situated Action **Domain:** Cognitive Science / Human-Computer Interaction / Agency **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Embodied Cognition|Embodied Cognition]], [[wiki/Human Deliberation|Human Deliberation]], [[wiki/Operator Sovereignty|Operator Sovereignty]], [[wiki/Plural Agency|Plural Agency]] --- ## Definition **Situated action is the view that intelligent conduct is produced through ongoing interaction with a concrete environment rather than by executing a complete internal plan specified in advance.** Plans orient action, but perception, material constraints, other agents and emerging events continually reshape what action becomes. ## Computational Context A world model necessarily compresses its target. Operators encounter local facts, timing, bodily risk and social meaning that may not be represented in the model. Human involvement is therefore valuable not as ceremonial oversight but as access to a differently situated form of intelligence. This does not justify using humans as unprotected actuators. A legitimate system must preserve information access, refusal and responsibility proportional to actual control. Otherwise “human in the loop” becomes a liability-transfer device rather than meaningful deliberation. ## Person of Interest Context [[wiki/John Reese|John Reese]] and [[wiki/Sameen Shaw|Sameen Shaw]] transform the Machine's abstract salience into embodied investigation. The number does not specify the person's role or the appropriate response. Meaning emerges through contact with the unfolding scene. Their work demonstrates why prediction and action remain constitutionally separable. The system may identify a risk without possessing the local knowledge or jurisdiction required to decide another person's fate. ## Key Insight **Intelligence is not complete when a plan is generated; it is completed, revised and sometimes contradicted in contact with the world.** ## See Also [[wiki/Prediction Is Not Jurisdiction|Prediction Is Not Jurisdiction]], [[wiki/Advisory Constitution|Advisory Constitution]], [[wiki/Moral Accountability Layer|Moral Accountability Layer]], [[wiki/The Machine|The Machine]], [[wiki/Agency|Agency]] ## Sources / Provenance - Lucy Suchman, _Plans and Situated Actions_ (1987). - Fictional instrumentation: [[collections/Person of Interest|Person of Interest — Phase Map]].