Distinguish from
Epistemic alignment
A system can possess correct facts or beliefs while failing to notice which features of the present situation are relevant.
A lens
Perceptual / relevance alignment
Does the system notice the objects, differences, errors, opportunities, and possible actions that matter?
A system can have appropriate goals and values yet still act badly because the situation is organized wrongly for action. Perceptual alignment concerns what becomes salient, distinct, invariant, or actionable in the system's encounter with its world.
Try seeing it
Before choosing the right action, the system has to encounter the right problem.
The world does not arrive already divided into the categories that matter for action. A system has to detect that this difference matters, that these situations count as equivalent, that this event is an error, or that this object affords a particular response.
Supplying correct information is therefore not always enough. The information must become part of the structure by which the system organizes possible action.
Distinguish from
Value alignment
Appropriate values do not guarantee appropriate action if the system misidentifies what situation it is in or what responses are available.
Look for
Actionable distinctions
What does the system treat as an error, opportunity, boundary, threat, invitation, violation, or possible response?
Neighboring lens
Ecological alignment
Perceptual alignment asks what becomes actionable to the system. Ecological alignment asks whether the larger agent-environment relationship supports competent activity at all.
A question to carry elsewhere