A re-occurring idea in the writing of Donald Campbell, one of the founding fathers, along with Karl Popper, of evolutionary epistemology, is the idea "vicarious selector." Vicarious selectors substitute for overt spatial exploration and locomotor trial and error. For example, instead of walking to a particular area to find out if it is dangerous, I LOOK at the area, perhaps with the help of binoculors. Another example would be a ship, instead of moving around an area to find other ships, bombs, etc, sending out substitute locomotions in the form of sonar beams.
Vicarious selectors are used in competitive enterprises for advantage.
Let me give two examples. I work as a clerk a law firm. Concerning one legal case that the firm was involved in, I was sent to the courthouse to look at files--all open to the public--of similiar cases. I was given a fair degree of latitude to research these public documents which I though was interesting. From these documents interesting things can be found, for example what kind of motions are filed, what arguments have been used before. These documents were, in Popper's phrase "exosomatic" artifacts, the containers of World Three. The firm, from these public documents, learned from the trial and error experiences of others before us.
Another example of a vicarious selector is the world wide web. It is another example of an exosomatic artifact, perhaps closest to the pure form of World Three. It goes without saying that an immense and diverse amount of information can be obtained and used from the world wide web.
So one theme of this post is that it is advatageous to a competitive enterprise to use vicarious selectors, especially those which happen to be exosomatic artifacts, the repositories of World Three.