The Witness: Lab 08

Header Image 1

The Swamp

Rules and understanding shift beneath your feet as you wade through the murky depths of The Swamp.

We have two kinds of knowledge which I call symbolic and intimate. I do not know whether it would be correct to say that reasoning is only applicable to symbolic knowledge, but the more customary forms of reasoning have been developed for symbolic knowledge only. The intimate knowledge will not submit to codification and analysis, or, rather, when we attempt to analyse it the intimacy is lost and replaced by symbolism. For an illustration let us consider Humour. I suppose that humour can be analysed to some extent and the essential ingredients of the different kinds of wit classified. Suppose that we are offered an alleged joke. We subject it to scientific analysis as we would a chemical salt of doubtful nature, and perhaps after careful consideration we are able to confirm that it really and truly is a joke. Logically, I suppose, our next procedure would be to laugh. But it may certainly be predicted that as the result of this scrutiny we shall have lost all inclination we ever had to laugh at it. It simply does not do to expose the workings of a joke. The classification concerns a symbolic knowledge of humour which preserves all the characteristics of a joke except its laughableness. The real appreciation must come spontaneously, not introspectively. I think this is a not unfair analogy for our mystical feeling for Nature, and I would venture even to apply it to our mystical experience of God. There are some to whom the sense of a divine presence irradiating the soul is one of the most obvious things of experience. In their view, a man without this sense is to be regarded as we regard a man without a sense of humour. The absence is a kind of mental deficiency. We may try to analyse the experience as we analyse humour, and construct a theology, or it may be an atheistic philosophy... But let us not forget that the theology is symbolic knowledge, whereas the experience is intimate knowledge. And as laughter cannot be compelled by the scientific exposition of the structure of a joke, so a philosophic discussion of the attributes of God (or an impersonal substitute) is likely to miss the intimate response of the spirit which is the central point of the religious experience.
---
Arthur Eddington, 1927

Audio Log 1

Zhuangzi

Navigate the small boat towards the Jungle to catch a glimpse of an audio log excerpt by Zhuangzi tucked away in a derelect shipwreck.

Audio Log 2

Completing Lab 8

This part of the island is complete when the final puzzle is solved and the laser fires into the sky. Nice work!

Laser Capture Image

The Witness Journal Entry #8

Write a journal entry on what you learned from this lab. Pretend that you are a scientist exploring this island for the very first time. Choose one of the prompts below (either 1, 2, or 3) to respond to in your journal entry.

Assurance in Understanding
- Consider Arthur Eddington’s explanation of intimate and symbolic knowledge.
- In what ways does the swamp teach you how to solve puzzles without specifically pronouncing the rules?
- Discuss a specific puzzle, or section of puzzles, in the swamp that, upon completion, gave you insight over the rules that govern this area.
Prior Knowledge Applied
- Consider the shift in approach you had to invoke for the underwater sections of the swamp.
- Did you find these puzzles easier to solve after acquiring a deeper understanding from the panels above? Explain.
- What in particular makes these submerged puzzles challenging to solve? Explain.
A Fluid Methodology
- Many of the puzzles in the swamp require multiple attempts before the solution is found.
- Explain the procedures you used to solve the puzzles in any area of the swamp. Did you sketch, guess and check, visualize solutions in your mind, etc.?
- What processes seemed to be the most effective for solving the problems? Explain why.

Final Journal Requirement:

After responding to one of the items above, discuss the solution to a particular puzzle that challenged you. Explain the mechanics of this puzzle in detail and how you came to understand them. If it helps, feel free to include screenshots or sketches of the puzzle.

The Witness: Lab 08

The Swamp

You Are Here

Key Insights

Audio Logs

Effaced Assumptions

Terrain Manipulation

Submerged Symbology

Arthur Eddington

Zhuangzi

Completing Lab 8

The Witness Journal Entry #8

Assurance in Understanding

Consider Arthur Eddington’s explanation of intimate and symbolic knowledge.

In what ways does the swamp teach you how to solve puzzles without specifically pronouncing the rules?

Discuss a specific puzzle, or section of puzzles, in the swamp that, upon completion, gave you insight over the rules that govern this area.

Prior Knowledge Applied

Consider the shift in approach you had to invoke for the underwater sections of the swamp.

Did you find these puzzles easier to solve after acquiring a deeper understanding from the panels above? Explain.

What in particular makes these submerged puzzles challenging to solve? Explain.

A Fluid Methodology

Many of the puzzles in the swamp require multiple attempts before the solution is found.

Explain the procedures you used to solve the puzzles in any area of the swamp. Did you sketch, guess and check, visualize solutions in your mind, etc.?

What processes seemed to be the most effective for solving the problems? Explain why.