[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

John K Clark wrote:
> "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience at pobox.com>
> 
>> John, that's like saying that you know water exists because you
>> drink it, but scientific investigation might not be able to find
>> water because our instruments can't actually drink water, only
>> scientists can. Nonetheless we understand water pretty well.  H20
>> as an object of accurate modeling and accurate prediction, and as
>> an object of drinking, are two different ways to interact with the
>> same molecule.  I do not think that an STM fails to understand
>> anything about an H2O molecule because someone is standing next to
>> the STM shrieking, "But water is for drinking!  Water is for 
>> DRINKING!"  Drinkableness is not an extra phenomenal aspect of
>> water which no scientific instrument can detect, even though
>> scientific instruments don't drink.
> 
> Eliezer I strongly disagree, or at least I think I strongly disagree
> but I'd better make sure. Luckily I just got delivery by UPS of one
> of Acme Corporation's new top of the line model 2186 Brain Analyzing
> Machines; pardon me a second while I put this on my head and... well
> I'll be damned! Eliezer I owe you an apology because according to the
> machine I actually think I strongly AGREE with you! I never would
> have guessed that in a million years but the machine is never wrong
> and the meter is clearly pegged at "agree". Or at least I think it's
> pegged at "agree", but I better double check. Oh no! I'm wrong again;
> the infallible machine says I really think the meter is pegged at
> "disagree". Or at least I think the meter says I disagree that the
> meter says I agree with you. But just to make sure I'd better use the
> machine again and...

So your machine is malfunctioning and producing bad information about 
your brain.  Do you really think that you can disagree with me without 
there being any readable sign of it in your neural configuration?  Can 
you change from disagreeing to agreeing while your brain remains 
constant?  Seriously, I don't get what you're saying here.

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence