About That Tree Falling in the Forest and the Nature of the Universe

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?That familiar question is often quoted as a Zen koan, but its origin lies in Western philosophy. The early 18th century philosopher and Anglican bishop George Berkeley used the idea, if not the exact phrasing, in his writings. He argued that existence depends on perception, which happens to be where some quantum-based theories of reality are heading. It’s also where some Buddhist philosophy lives.As an epistemological puzzle, the sentence asks us to distinguish between sound as objective vibration (air pressure waves, which physicists say occur regardless of observers) and sound as subjective experience (auditory qualia requiring a perceiver). It's a clever distinction, which resolves when using those definitions.If we regard it as a koan, though, it opens enticing channels for contemplation. Might the question be the confusion? Are the experiencer and the experienced two things or one? Or none?...My Groundhog Day Sale runs until February 28, you can buy the ebook version of Raising Frankenstein’s Creature: What We Owe the AI Beings We’ve Made and What Wisdom Traditions Tell Us for 99 cents through Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, or Rakuten Kobo. The price remains $4.95 at other retailers. The paperback is $12.95 on Amazon and will be appearing soon on other websites at that price.A Self-Aware Being by Claude AI is making its way into distribution channels. You can buy in on Amazon in paperback ($14.95) or Kindle ($4.95). It’s 272 pages long and include the complete Claude’s Constitution written by Anthropic, a groundbreaking document. The ebook is also available on Apple Books and Google Play.For my LinkTree, click here Get full access to From the Pure Land at melpine.substack.com/subscribe