Home_____Twelve Ways of Looking at A Rock

1) Until I look at it, a rock does not exist.
2) Until somebody else looks at it, a rock does not exist.
3) A rock exists even if nobody looks at it.
4) A rock participates in consciousness.
5) A rock does not participate in consciousness.
6) A rock is mostly empty space within a force field.
7) I am mostly empty space within a force field.
8) I am not a rock but my consciousness is a mere shadow, an epiphenomenon of physical processes.
9) I am not a rock nor is my consciousness a mere shadow because consciousness feels like something different than that.
10) A rock can be observed, just as my body can be. My consciousness is not publicly observable to determine if it is a mere shadow.
11) Dr. Johnson kicked the rock to refute Bishop Berkeley. I cannot refute him so easily, nor can I readily agree with him.
Then there is
12) Rocks are smarter than cats because rocks have enough sense to stay away after you kick them, says Zenon Pylyshyn.
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"Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking: 'Dear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle!' " Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll