[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[Eugen Leitl]

On Thu, Nov 24, 2005 at 02:59:34AM -0500, gts wrote:

> Intelligent though this cameras may be, I think most people would say it  
> did not actually experience the 'red' quale.

Why? Do you need to be a human to see red? Do chimps qualify? Insects?
Bacteria?

Recognizing a specific wavelength range is a really simple measurement.
A single molecule could do it.
 
> You and I know what red "looks like" (the qualia) but the camera was just  
> doing mathematical computations. It never really experienced redness. Or  

You did not actually see red. A photon hit a transmembrane pigment and
caused a depolarization, which resulted in a spike cascade.

It was just some atom choreography. "You" "did" "not" "actually" "see" "red".
Computers can't actually play chess. Industrial robots don't actually work,
they only simulate it.

Silly, ain't it?

> did it?

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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