First Person Science
From Seven
Contents |
Introduction
To understand the concept of a "First Person Science" we can look at what the Third Person Science is. (The Second Person Science is still very much in the making, but I am working on it). The 3rd Person Science is what we consider to be (natural) sciences which for the sake of the argument in this context I will dub the "Third Person Science".
Science
Science refers to any systematic knowledge or practice. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on scientific method. For the sake of this argument we will look into the concept of science with scientific method.
Scientific Method
Scientific method creates a hypothesis and then gathers observable, empirical and measurable evidence to test it. The experiments must be designed in a fashion that they can be repeated by anybody. It is not important to specify more exactly who or how many "anybody" is or are as we will see in a moment. It is debatable whether scientific method can ever produce proof of anything because a hypothesis can never develop into a fact. It can only evolve into a theory that has been confirmed by an arbitrary number of tests that have produced the expected or predicted result.
This method works exceptionally well in the third person context. Things that take place and can be observed in the material world can be measured by two different people who produce the same result. But anything that only exist in the virtual world of our minds like emotions cannot be reproduced by anybody except the individual that experienced the emotion. This fundamental drawback of the scientific method renders it useless for exploring the mind.
The Oberver's Perspective
Interestingly Physics has recently advanced to a point where the eye of the beholder seems to have an effect on the object that is being observed. In other words, the object that is being observed is nothing but a projection of the observer.
The Mind is not our Brain which is not our Consciousness
Although some aspects of the mind can clearly be correlated with some parts of the brain our very cobsciousness is something apart. It cannot be pointed to one part of the brain or one succession of electrochemical processes and neuronal activity in the brains. Quantum Physics offers a whole new framework to discover the relation of our consciousness and our brains. In a nutshell: It may be possible that our brains are highly sensitive antennas to connect, access and broadcast within the quantum field. Our very consciousness would thus not be completely tied to our biology but exist as several layers of interacting wave patterns, some of which are originating and can be perceived by our brains. Sounds half baked? It is.
Incommunicado
Essentially we are not able to communicate our framework of understanding. We can use Language and common Terminology to talk about it. We might share bits and pieces but whatever we communicate always underlies Interpretation by all others. This makes us thoroughly isolated beings. Interestingly, we only function in the context of other human beings. If there is no interaction we stop being human and degenerate to another level without self consciousness. Every aspect of our intellectual life exists out of interaction with other human being and only that.
Communication
What alternatives are there? We must devise a way to understand our mind without being able to objectively share the corresponding evidence with others - so to say without being able to compare and retry other experimental setups. There is no way to convey or make accessible the way a human being observes the image of the color red. To be more vivid, there is no way to convey or make accessible the way a human being observes the image of a policeman (or rose or slab of stone). The assaulted will welcome the policeman where the assaulting will despise the policeman's appearance. Let not get into what happens if the policeman is the assaulting...
(Third person) scientific method can only observe physical effects which in most cases are at best secondary if not arbitrary. The rising pulse can be measured, adrenaline can be detected in the blood stream but there is no way to measure the complexity of what is happening in your mind right now at this very moment. Ideally I could ask you to make a core dump of your RAM and post it in this Wiki. But hey, that would be something that you'd maybe rather not share with the rest of the world.
