Driving at 80kmph on a Berlin freeway, the cars in front and in the rear view mirror look like they are stationary. Inside the car, everything looks stationary. And yet the rest of the world flashes by. And the whole road itself flies at 1000kmph on the big aping ball we call home.

A conversation at a Berlin lounge bar, outside, warm summer’s day. A discussion about reality, and an attempt at finding some common, trustworthy examples of a singular truth. Two people on top of a building I think, dropping things and taking measurements with the same instrument. A universal result, for sure. Well, again, it all is relative to the viewpoint of the observer, and the perspective of the protagonists, even in the thought experiment.

Perhaps, then, it is relativity that is the true constant. Everything depends on the perspective of the observer. Systems change entirely, even physical systems, based on the observed stance.

You look in the sky with a naked eye, you see the moon and stars. Telescope, more detail. Background radiation? Light shifting? You keep looking at the same bit of sky and keep seeing different things. And, in all likelihood, the person sitting next to you may see different things. The data you gather can be interpreted in many ways.

And, sometimes you as an observer get it wrong. For many decades chemists investigated phlogiston in total confidence of its presence. They were wrong. Wrong lens.

More thinking to do on the subject, and not my first dive in either. It’s important for some work I’m doing on how complex systems and networks become configured based on the end goal of any one of the participants (elements in my terms, nodes on network terms). Interesting things to think about on a balmy Wed night.