The duality of psycho-physics

1. This conference on visual perception is in the land of Rene Descartes, who gave the first clear statement of the mind-body problem, and of Alain Aspect, the physicist whose recent experiments (to be discussed) cast doubt on an objective world that exists without being observed. It seems entirely appropriate to honor and connect the contributions of these two Frenchmen. 2. This particular session of the conference is about tacit assumptions in our models of vision. We should ask what assumptions about consciousness and the homunculus we need for our models. Is it possible to truncate the infinite regress associated with the homunculus? How are our subjective impressions linked to our objective button pushes? It is good to get the tacit assumptions out on the table. 3. The name of our field, “psychophysics”, entitles us to be the “chosen field” to worry about the connection between psyche and physics. 4. Last, but not least, I have a novel situation for the mind-body or the subjective-objective duality, related to a little-known aspect of quantum mechanics.