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Unaffected Variable

Many variables that you affect with your actions do not affect your perceptions, a situation that occurs with many  incidentally affected variables.  On the other hand, many variables affect your perceptions, but you do not affect them with your actions. When you drive an automobile, your actions do not affect the location of the roadway in geographical space, but your actions can affect  the relationship between the positions of the automobile and the roadway, as you perceive them. When you walk along a path through the woods, your actions do not affect the locations of trees and stones and streams and bridges, but your actions can affect your perceived position relative to those objects.

In Basic Loop, the box labeled "unaffected variable" represents all of the variables the system perceives, but does not affect with its actions.