Independently
Existing reality
Objective knowledge
Philosophical alternatives
Dead tree skeletons punctuate the Gibbon Geyser Basin. Associated hydrogen sulfide gas yields the characteristic rotten egg odor of the active mudpot. Some things that inform consciousness exist beyond consciousness.
“But the rocks are full of the bones of extinct animals – mammoths and mastodons and enormous reptiles which lived here long before man was ever heard of.” – Winston Smith