Dear LJE Well, we are not certain what logical type of explanation would satisfy you. We seem to be focusing on different subjects. While we happen to be on the road and without a copy of Whispering, our memory is that the entire epistemology presented in that corresponding chapter is presented without any reference to consciousness - the key concept in your posting. What we were after is a much larger point than consciousness - epistemology is, after all, the investigation of the relationship between human knowledge and the world in which we live. One of the points we were pursuing is that all the nonsense written about truth is wasted effort. F1 transforms guarentee that there is no isomorphic mapping available at present. So, think about this way: First Access (FA or the 4 tuple) is the point at which the data stream reaches the first point where we have access to it - well after it has moved through a significant number of transforms. Check your own experience and call what you have (non-linguistically mediated representations) FA. Call the stimulation that is the original source of these representations "reality". So now what's your question? All the best, John and Carmen