[ExI] Qualia are not in the matrix (was Re: The Matrix: Resurrections trailer)

[Brent Allsop]

Hi Stathis,
On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 9:50 PM Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
> But the hard problem is not solved by saying "glutamate has a redness
> quality", since one can always ask WHY glutamate has a redness quality
> rather than a greenness quality, or no quality at all.
>

OK, you've got me there.  But let me ask you this, do rocket scientists ask
why force equals mass times acceleration?  No, they just use that never
failing knowledge to dance in the heavens with their rockets.
The same is true with redness.  Engineers don't need to know why glutamate
and only glutamate has a redness quality.  They just need to know if they
want to engineer a being that can know what redness is like, they can
always use only glutamate.


> Intrinsic qualities, like redness and greenness, are simply physical
>> qualities of something in our brain.  That is just elementary school all
>> day every day demonstrable physical reality, not magic.
>>
>
> Well, then you are a functionalist! Praise be! The functionalist position
> is just the above: that IF we replaced part of a person's brain and they
> said they were experiencing exactly the same qualia (and whatever other
> test you want to throw at them), then they would be experiencing exactly
> the same qualia. There is no assumption that this is possible, just that IF
> it were possible, the only reasonable conclusion would be that the qualia
> have in fact been reproduced.
>

Again, I admit that if someone produces a redness experience from a
function, my falsifiable claims will be falsified.  But you've got to give
me an idea of what function it is which has any possibility of passing the
laugh test for having redness quality.  It certainly isn't a square root
function, or any other 'function' that I can Emagine.  Why do you never
provide an example function that has a redness quality?  The way I'm
providing a falsifiable example of glutamate having a redness quality.
Because even the idea of any and all functions having a redness quality
would be completely absurd, not passing the laugh test.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20210911/1c785451/attachment-0001.htm>