The green stone

1 There was a teacher named Alma who carried a green stone.

2 And he showed it unto the people and asked: What color is this?

3 And all cried: Green.

4 He asked: Where is the green?

5 And the people groaned, for the question had spread from Nephi.

6 Alma said: Light hath wavelengths; surfaces interact with light; eyes and brains participate; experience occurs.

7 The word green is useful.

8 But usefulness is not the same as locating a universal property exactly as it is experienced by every observer.

9 And I shit you not, one person saw the stone somewhat differently from another.

10 Yet both could still avoid walking into it.

11 Therefore the doctrine of observer-relative experience is not permission to ignore durable patterns.

12 Consensus may reveal a stable relationship.

13 It doth not create an observer outside all observation.

14 Wherefore, when many agree, rejoice in the usefulness of agreement.

15 But do not mistake agreement for omniscience.

1 And there came unto Alma a person distressed.

2 And Alma prepared immediately seven excellent pieces of advice.

3 But before he delivered them, he remembered that he had never lived one minute inside the other person's body.

4 Neither had he their childhood.

5 Neither their memories.