[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[John K Clark]

"Robin Hanson" <rhanson at gmu.edu>

> If you can see your qualia, then if we could watch your brain closely
> enough we could see whatever you see.

You know what my brain is doing and you can predict what I will do in any
given situation, but do you also know what I feel like when I'm sad? You
know my brain is in state X and I will soon perform action Y, so now do you
know what it's like to walk in my shoes? I don't think so.

If, as you suggest, the sate of the neurons in my head is the ultimate
authority of what I'm feeling and even takes priority over my subjective
experience then I should look at my brain analyzing machine before I say I'm
happy or sad or in pain. And then I must ask the machine if I've read it
correctly. And then I must ask the machine if I've read it correctly. And
then I must ask the machine if I've read it correctly. [.....]

> we are built to assume that we have direct experience.

Yes, but how does that contradict anything I said?

> But assuming something is different from having evidence of it.

I have no need to supply evidence of direct experience as it is the one
thing in the universe that takes priority over the scientific method.

   John K Clark