[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet

[gts]

On Fri, 09 Dec 2005 00:21:51 -0500, Marc Geddes <marc.geddes at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> You should read up on Neutral monism, because it's an incredibly subtle  
> and interesting philosophical theory.  It traces back to Baruch  
> Spinoza...
> and in the 20th century it was espoused by heavy weight Bertrand  
> Russell.  A modern 'heavy weight' supporter is philosopher David  
> Chalmers.

Thanks, I will, and thanks also for the links.

Actually I'm already familiar with Spinoza and just recently read  
Chalmer's _The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory_. I  
suppose my ideas here and our near agreement didn't come completely out of  
a vacuum, though I didn't know Russell attacked the problem.

I can't personally think of a more difficult problem, which is exactly why  
it appeals to me.

We haven't discussed Penrose here, but for whatever it's worth I have  
rejected his theory without a full reading of his book. The bit about  
microtubules and so forth strikes me as way too convoluted. I would expect  
the truth of something so basic to be more elegant.

"Quantum gravity, or something similar, via microtubules, must play a key  
role in consciousness and cognition."

Bleh.

-gts