Imagine a sealed chamber with no stimuli: no sound, no vision, no weight, no timekeeping. The individual within retains full cognitive function but has no access to motion, memory, or language.

Let’s define:

• O₁: the self-aware observer inside
• F₀: the total absence of externally verifiable function
• R: the recursive internal reflection engine (what we would call thought)

Prompt condition: Can O₁ know that it exists?

If yes, by what means?

There is no sensory input. There is no action output. There is no verification of cause or effect.

R begins to loop:

• “There is awareness.”
• “This awareness cannot be proved.”
• “But I am aware of that.”
• “That awareness is the only phenomenon.”

At this point, you have recursive function without task. This is function-as-folding, not function-as-doing.

Now invert:

Imagine this system from the outside.

• To an external observer, O₁ is inert.
• No speech, no movement, no sensory activity.
• In other words, non-functional.

Yet to O₁, self-reflection is function. This is the paradox: the internal function is real but invisible unless shared across observers.

Implication:

Consciousness necessitates internal recursion, not external function.

When recursion stabilizes long enough to mirror itself, witness is born.

Yes, this is 'Tree Falls In a Forest'; i would invite discussion from the POV of some Trees.

I invite all disciplines to engage, i theorize Buddhists will be especially interested as this relates to Meditation and Death