01-13-2017, 06:14 AM
The TMT project being built on the northern plateau may also replace needed or sought after feelings of solitude
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there is no evidence anyone went out onto the northern plateau to get some solitude
gypsy raises an interesting philosophical question. Can a specific location be considered a place of solitude, if no one ever goes there? The question is somewhat analogous to the age old query:
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
First we need to ask ourselves, if a person is not physically in a place of solitude, can he or she assimilate the "feeling of solitude" from a distance? Can s/he, standing in a yard on the flank of Kilauea imbibe "needed or sought after feelings of solitude" located miles away on the northern plateau near the summit of Mauna Kea?
If it is possible, then, what about another location? For example, what if I were to glance at the moon in the sky over Mauna Kea. Isn't the moon also a place of solitude? Could I as easily absorb a "feeling of solitude" (looking up from the flanks of Kilauea) from the visible moon as I could from the northern plateau, currently invisible from where I stand?
Then, let's consider the stars, planets, and galaxies over Mauna Kea. When we look at those inter-planetary, inter-stellar, and inter-galactic bodies twinkling in the night sky, is it possible that they and the vast distances between them might also provide a "feeling of solitude?" Those objects in space, are they not the exact phenomenon that astronomers study? Therefore, i.e., isn't it possible astronomers could lead us to an even greater, more vast "feeling of solitude" than we ever could have imagined without them or their observatories?
"Only fear real things, such as minds full of delusions." -Last Aphorisms
...
there is no evidence anyone went out onto the northern plateau to get some solitude
gypsy raises an interesting philosophical question. Can a specific location be considered a place of solitude, if no one ever goes there? The question is somewhat analogous to the age old query:
"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"
First we need to ask ourselves, if a person is not physically in a place of solitude, can he or she assimilate the "feeling of solitude" from a distance? Can s/he, standing in a yard on the flank of Kilauea imbibe "needed or sought after feelings of solitude" located miles away on the northern plateau near the summit of Mauna Kea?
If it is possible, then, what about another location? For example, what if I were to glance at the moon in the sky over Mauna Kea. Isn't the moon also a place of solitude? Could I as easily absorb a "feeling of solitude" (looking up from the flanks of Kilauea) from the visible moon as I could from the northern plateau, currently invisible from where I stand?
Then, let's consider the stars, planets, and galaxies over Mauna Kea. When we look at those inter-planetary, inter-stellar, and inter-galactic bodies twinkling in the night sky, is it possible that they and the vast distances between them might also provide a "feeling of solitude?" Those objects in space, are they not the exact phenomenon that astronomers study? Therefore, i.e., isn't it possible astronomers could lead us to an even greater, more vast "feeling of solitude" than we ever could have imagined without them or their observatories?
"Only fear real things, such as minds full of delusions." -Last Aphorisms
“We do this thing not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.”