A fascinating examination of the cultural lens of science with which we view Nature, as described in Steven Buhner's book The Secret Teachings of Plants:
"Any measurement of Nature that smooths out its irregularities in order to allow measurement is not objective. It is, in fact, highly subjective.
The observer, by determining the degree of measurement (or magnification) that will be used, and thus how the lines will be smoothed out, interferes with what is being measured. The observer intervenes in any resultant description of Nature by subtly altering its description, a description that depends on a preference for one level of magnificaiton over another. It is an error that is not rectifiable--not correctable--because the error comes from the way of thinking itself. It comes from applying a linear, static mode of cognition to a nonlinear, always changing and flowing reality. That this resultant description is then taken as an accurate portrayal of Nature injects an unreality into our collective consciousness. We are slightly moved away from Nature, and everything we do begins to take perturbations that grow greater the farther away in time we go from, and the more decisions we make based upon, that original error in description.
The truth is that in the real world, in Nature, quantification is a projection of arbitrary human decisions. It is always subjective. Nature contains no fixed, measurable quantities." and if you would care to find out how he justifies it, the book is quite interesting.
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