Note: This originally was part of the notes for an open class in non-duality, given in the summer of 2005.

One of the signs of the Kali Yuga is the displacement of Quality by Quantity. This is so pervasive that we may find it difficult to see the distinction between the quality “blue” in consciousness and the quantity of a certain wavelength of light. So we have scientists since Galileo deny that the “real” world has any color, smell, or other sensation. Philosophers claim that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” and the “good is all relative.” But if the scientist is not trying to manifest Truth, the artist Beauty, and the man of action Good, then what exactly are they doing?

Follow up Since there were a few computer scientists in the group, I asked for a solution to the problem of writing a computer program to detect the color “blue”. Every one of them suggested hooking up a spectrometer and detecting the wavelengths characterized as blue (by, of course, the programmer); they saw no paradox in this. But the true solution would be for the computer to determine the wave lengths.