[ExI] Do digital computers feel was Re: Is the wave function real?

[Brent Allsop]

John Said: "I would agree that red is a subjective experience and "red" is
just an ASCII sequence."


On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 7:05 AM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 10:51 PM, Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> ​> ​
>>  And would you also agree that an abstracted work like "red" does not
>> have this quality?
>
>
> ​I would agree that red is a subjective experience and "red" is just an
> ASCII sequence. ​
>

So you agree that there is a significant qualitative difference between
your experience of redness and any abstracted representation of red like an
ASCII sequence.  In other words, would you agree that it could be that my
brain interprets the word "red" as being your greenness experience or
something. (i.e. I could have red green inverted qualia from you.)



>
>
>> ​> ​
>> And would you agree that something in our brain has this quality when we
>> experience it?
>>
>
> ​What's with this "our" and "we" stuff? I have a subjective experience
> when I experience red but I have no proof that you do, in fact I have no
> proof that you or anybody else have any subjective experiences at all. ​
>
> ​If somebody believes that a digital computer ​behaving as if it is
> conscious is insufficient evidence to conclude that it really is conscious
> and if he wishes to be consistent in his beliefs then there is no
> alternative but to embrace solipsism.
>
>
Sorry for stating that using "our" and "we".  Let me rephrase the
question:  Do you believe that something in your brain has your redness
quality, and could anyone else besides you detect this stuff that has your
redness quality while you are experiencing it, with any advanced detection
system, and could they, using these same detection systems, do things like
distinguish this quality from whatever it is that has your greenness
quality when you experience that, instead...?  In other words, by making
such observations on others, and on themselves, they could tell if someone
else has red green inverted qualia from themselves?

Brent
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