[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[Robin Hanson]

On 11/23/2005, John Clark wrote:
>>Someone will realize there must be phenomenal properties
>>in nature in addition to causal properties.
>
>If qualia is non causal that would explain why the Turing Test can't detect
>it, but now we have a much more serious problem, natural selection can't
>detect it either. If qualia is not an inevitable byproduct of intelligence
>as I believe then why did evolution invent the thing? It will not be of one
>bit of help getting a gene into the next generation.

Oh it is much worse than that.  If qualia are properties that do not sit in
the network of causation for brain states, then qualia cannot be the reason
that anyone claims that they have qualia!  The fact that qualia exist and
that people argue for qualia existing could only be a coincidence.  People
would say they had qualia even if qualia did not exist.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323