Perception is not a skill

    Why this came to mind yesterday I do not know (well, kinda - it's a little related to another project I'm working on).  This comes from my own real-life experiences, so let me tell you a story...

    Many, many years ago I had an old Pontiac Sunbird.  It was used when I got it, and it had been very extensively used.  Still, it worked overall.  Until the day in question - when I was driving down the freeway, in the middle of the desert between Arizona on my way to New Mexico.  Everything seemed fine until all the gauges on my dashboard spiked, then dropped.
    So, instead of having a speedometer needle at the 65 mph I was driving (or 70 - I actually almost always drive the speed limit, I'm weird), it was sitting at 0.  My gas gauge, the oil temp, RPM, everything was at 0.

    Here, to drop out of real-life and into a theoretical RPG, my Perception kicked in.  I saw that something had changed.  And I knew it was not something normal or that, in fact, it had ever happened before while I've driven a vehicle.

    The next part, back to IRL, is why this post is being written: I had no idea what that meant!
    Why had my gauges all dropped?  The engine was still running, I was still moving (at a now-unknown speed), everything else seemed to be completely normal.  So what had happened?  And, what should I do?  There was no other traffic, so nobody around me was in danger.  But the thought hit me - if I pull over, will I be able to start again?  I'm several miles away from Santa Fe and the only nearby mechanic(s).  So what happened and what do I do?
    Well, I did make it to civilization - and I did find a mechanic, actually it took two, who was able to inform me that my electrical system had a short, which killed my gauges and my alternator.  It amusingly turned out to be a stupidly-easy fix.

     And that is why perception is not a skill.  Just because you see/ hear/ notice/ discover something means nothing if you can't put it in a useful context.  It's the difference between a signal and communication.  If you're sitting in the library next to me and I shout "AAAAAAHHHHHHaaahhhhhahahahah!!!!!!!!"  I have 'signaled' that there is something abnormal (hopefully) going on.  But I have not communicated anything.  If, instead of the random noise, I shouted, "Oh God help me there's a giant wombat chewing on my leg!!!"  I have now communicated, I have passed on information (granted, strange and difficult to comprehend information).

    Perception is a signal - something has changed in the environment (either an existing thing has altered, or something has been added, or something has been taken away).
    Knowledge, or Skill is communication.  This-kind-of-thing happens on the surface when these-kinds-of-things happen out of sight/ perception-range.

    Ergo: perception is not a skill.