01
Sense
Acquire a state of the physical world.
Every physical instruction begins by observing an environment through cameras, sensors, records, vehicles, people, or connected systems.
Measured in meters
Computational Distance
Outerview uses Computational Distance to describe how intelligence moves through space, time, information, and physical action to complete an instruction. Every instruction has a distance.
Language models
measure tokens
Physical intelligence
measures distance
Computation no longer happens in one place
Physical intelligence must sense an environment, understand where things are, reason about changing conditions, and sometimes move through the world to complete its objective. The computation is distributed across sensors, models, machines, environments, people, movement, space, and time.
02
Relate
Place everything in space and time.
Objects, places, events, and machines become useful when their positions, proximity, direction, sequence, and change are understood together.
03
Reason
Determine what should happen next.
The system compares locations, ranks risks, predicts movement, resolves constraints, and selects the next action.
04
Act
Carry the decision through the physical world.
An instruction can end in an answer, route, inspection, delivery, verification, or physical change.
Intelligence Distance
The distance traveled through observations, relationships, possible outcomes, and decisions. A query may pass through millions of physical observations without a machine physically moving.
Find every stop sign within 100 meters of a school and explain the pattern.
Operational Distance
The distance traveled while carrying a decision into the physical world. A vehicle may move across a city, while also sensing, planning, adapting, and verifying completion.
Collect a package from Location A and deliver it to Location B.
One instruction, one journey
Identify schools with inadequate stop-sign coverage, inspect the highest-risk locations, and deliver a replacement sign to the first approved site. That instruction begins as a question and can end as a completed physical operation.
SenseDetect schools, signs, roads, entrances, and traffic conditions.
RelateCalculate proximity, access, risk areas, and changing conditions.
ReasonRank locations, select a site, assign a vehicle, and plan a route.
ActMove the sign to the destination and verify delivery.
Tokens measure language processed. Computational Distance measures progress through reality.