In The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra remarks the similarities between the forms of awareness implicit in modern physics and the traditional philosophy of Eastern, non- alphabetic cultures. The east bypasses hardware and absolute concepts in favor of percepts, that is, a 'direct, non-intellectual experience of reality'. A number of fundamental characteristics are independent of the mystic's geographical, historical, or cultural ground: 'The most important characteristic of the Eastern world view - one could almost say the essence of it - is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. All things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of this cosmic whole, as different manifestations of the same ultimate reality' (The Tao of Physics, 174). The East, which never had a phonetic alphabet, never had a Euclid and never developed absolute concepts of space and time. However, now that China is pressing a program of (our) alphabetic literacy without attention to its side-effects, it may be expected soon to develop abstract concepts and a taste for hardware.