DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBSERVATION.

     There is direct observation and there is indirect observation.

     Indirect observation is when you observe A by looking at B.

     Direct observation is when you observe A by looking at A.

     So you get the guy to understand this and then you ask him to
give you an example of indirect observation.

     He says "Well I got this video camera, and its hooked to a TV,
and I am watching the crowd outside by looking at the image on the TV
coming in through the video camera."

     You ask him how come that's not direct observation and he says
because I am looking at the TV image which is B in order to learn
about the actual events out there which is A.

     So then you ask him to give you an example of direct observation.

     He says, well I skip the TV and the video camera and I go out
there and look at the crowd directly.

     With your body's eyes?

     Well, yes.

     Ok, so how is that different than watching the TV set?

     The photons come into your body's eyes, they get converted to who
knows what in your optic nerve and brain and then get converted to
your conscious picture.

     You are using your conscious picture of the crowd (B) to learn
about the actual crowd (A).

     How are your eyes any more direct than watching the TV image
produced by the video camera?

     Uh, well they aren't.

     Ok, then give me an example of direct observation.

     So he woofs and woogers around for a while and finally says, well
I close my eyes, and I imagine a great big red ball.

     I am not seeing it with a video camera, I am not seeing it with
my body's eyes, I am not seeing it WITH anything.  Thus it has to be I
am looking at it directly, not at something else that represents it.

     Good, he's got it.

     A machine can not directly observe ANYTHING, period.

     BECAUSE a machine is separate from what it is looking at.

     Space and time = separation = two different objects = no direct
observation.

     When looker and looked at are two different objects, that means
no direct observation and thus no certainty of existence or causal
relation.

     That happens to be a very big deal.

     But most of the world still thinks that direct observation means
using a via like the body's eyes.

     They have been using their body's eyes to LOOK with for a very
long time and calling it direct observation.

     Thus they have defined true direct observation out of existence,
and gotten lost of the fact that consciousness is not a machine.

     Homer

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith     The Paths of Lovers    Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959 KC2ITF        Cross            Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com    In the Line of Duty    http://www.lightlink.com

Wed Feb  7 01:31:46 EST 2007