What Is This Place?

Take a moment to consider your visual field. Try to do so with a beginner’s mind. You read these words on a screen. Zoom out, to the edge of your periphery, even as you read. Ask yourself: what is the visual field made of? What is this place? You may have strong intuitions about this. You may object to such questions outright. But consider that your visual field - when taken together with thoughts, sounds, and sensations - is the only thing you’ve ever known directly. Everything else, from atoms to other minds, is inference. The redness of red cannot be found in the wavelength. It exists, here. In this place. All human epistemology starts with qualia. Yet, our physical models of reality leave it entirely unaddressed. The foundation of our knowledge is a total mystery to us. What is this place?