Physics Without Divinity: 7 Situated Observation — Beyond the Absolute Observer

From God’s Eye to Perspectival View

Physics often imagines an “absolute observer,” a God-like vantage from which the universe can be surveyed without bias. Measurements and equations are framed as if they capture reality from nowhere, free of context.

Relationally, there is no view from nowhere. Observation is always situated: it arises from a perspective embedded within process. What we record, measure, and describe is the actualisation of relational patterns from a particular cut in the flow of possibility.

The absolute observer dissolves into the network of relations. Knowledge is not universal and unmediated; it is the mapping of relational structure as it manifests from specific positions. Physics need not aspire to divinity — it only needs to acknowledge perspectival actualisation.