Spirits (was RE: [extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.)

[gts]

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 10:29:15 -0500, John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:

> "gts" <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>
>
>> Mary is trapped in a black and white world [...] One day she escapes  
>> into
>> the world of color and sees red for the first time. Did Mary just  
>> acquire additional knowledge about the color red?
>
> Yes and we can prove it with the scientific method much easier than  
> Galileo proved things about gravity by rolling balls down an incline  
> plane. We just note that for the first time Marry can tell the  
> difference between a red
> light and a white light; and that's not very phenomenal now is it.

We can infer that Many acquired new knowledge because she will say  
something like, "Aha! So that's red looks like! I know something new!"

However if we are still trapped in that black and white world then we  
cannot share in her new knowledge of what red looks like.

It seems some part of the brain has the capacity to acquire pure  
phenomenal knowledge. If that knowledge acquisition works by physical  
rules, as I think it does, then that part of the brain functions something  
like camera film.

When Mary sees red, some atoms/molecules/chemicals/cells get jumbled  
around physically. I think that physical change *is* experience, and I see  
no reason to think it does not apply to all physical change inside or  
outside the brain.

We tend to think a brain cannot have experience unless it is conscious.  
However I think consciousness is merely the ability to ponder experience  
after the fact, not a prerequisite to the experience itself.

I think insects experience the world through their eyes and other senses,  
even though insect brains are very primitive and probably leave them too  
dumb and unconscious to reflect consciously on experience.

-gts