1
Introduction
Let’s begin with a thought-experiment: Imagine that all life has vanished from
the universe, but everything else is undisturbed. Matter is scattered about in
space in the same way as it is now, there is sunlight, there are stars, planets and
galaxies—but all of it is unseen. There is no human or animal eye to cast a glance
at objects, hence nothing is discerned, recognized or even noticed. Objects in
the unobserved universe have no shape, color or individual appearance, because
shape and appearance are created by minds. Nor do they have features, because
features correspond to categories of animal sensation. This is the way the early
universe was before the emergence of life—and the way the present universe
is outside the view of any observer.
To living beings, the universe has all the color and detail given by the senses.
Due to biological imperatives, we are made to imagine that objects “really are”
exactly as we experience seeing them. We likewise imagine that when we observe
things, it suffices to cast a glance at them and their structure is immediately
and directly revealed to us: We are not consciously aware of the elaborate
computations that our sensory systems do in the background. Consequently,
we believe that what we discern is already out there, just as we see it. We have
a naïve idea that our eyes simply harvest the bounty of structure and shapes
that exist in the world independently of us, inviting our glance.
Shape and structure are incorrectly believed to be an inherent aspect of solid
matter: Actually, they are produced by the synthesizing effort of observers.
We are misled even though current knowledge explicitly reveals that our naïve
thinking is flawed. In contemporary science we continue to view objects uncritically in the categories constructed by the senses, and investigate them in terms
of features attributed to them by our organs of sensation. Even hypothetical
entities such as elementary particles and force fields are dressed up to look like
things we’re familiar with.
© The Author(s) 2021
C. Pinter, Mind and the Cosmic Order,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50083-2_1
1
Introduction
Let’s begin with a thought-experiment: Imagine that all life has vanished from
the universe, but everything else is undisturbed. Matter is scattered about in
space in the same way as it is now, there is sunlight, there are stars, planets and
galaxies—but all of it is unseen. There is no human or animal eye to cast a glance
at objects, hence nothing is discerned, recognized or even noticed. Objects in
the unobserved universe have no shape, color or individual appearance, because
shape and appearance are created by minds. Nor do they have features, because
features correspond to categories of animal sensation. This is the way the early
universe was before the emergence of life—and the way the present universe
is outside the view of any observer.
To living beings, the universe has all the color and detail given by the senses.
Due to biological imperatives, we are made to imagine that objects “really are”
exactly as we experience seeing them. We likewise imagine that when we observe
things, it suffices to cast a glance at them and their structure is immediately
and directly revealed to us: We are not consciously aware of the elaborate
computations that our sensory systems do in the background. Consequently,
we believe that what we discern is already out there, just as we see it. We have
a naïve idea that our eyes simply harvest the bounty of structure and shapes
that exist in the world independently of us, inviting our glance.
Shape and structure are incorrectly believed to be an inherent aspect of solid
matter: Actually, they are produced by the synthesizing effort of observers.
We are misled even though current knowledge explicitly reveals that our naïve
thinking is flawed. In contemporary science we continue to view objects uncritically in the categories constructed by the senses, and investigate them in terms
of features attributed to them by our organs of sensation. Even hypothetical
entities such as elementary particles and force fields are dressed up to look like
things we’re familiar with.
© The Author(s) 2021
C. Pinter, Mind and the Cosmic Order,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50083-2_1
1