[ExI] Why stop at glutamate?

[Brent Allsop]

Hi Gadersd,

On Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 2:35 PM Gadersd via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Brent, where is the glutamate quality of electrons, neutrons, and protons?
> Which electron has the redness quality?
>
> Electrons behave the way they do, because they have a quality you have
never experienced before. (Note:  I'm a pan qualityist. a panpsychist minus
the pan computational binding ;)

There exists higher order structure that doesn’t exist in the component
> parts, hence the phrase “more than the sum of the parts."
>

I guess that would be a hypothetical possibility.  I try to always point
out  that some day, someone will experience redness without glutamate,
falsifying the prediction that it is glutamate that behaves the way it
does, because of its redness quality.  Once glutamate is falsified, they
will try something else, possibly including something that is the sum of
some configuration of parts, or ANYTHING.  The reason we use glutamate is
because it is so easily falsifiable.  Falsifiability is what we are missing
with the qualitative nature of consciousness, and ease of falsifiability is
the reason we are using glutamate as an easy stand-in for whatever redness
turns out to be.

I just wish people with these kinds of "qualities arise from <whatever>"
theories would explicitly acknowledge (instead of ignoring), what everyone
knows absolutely, that color qualities are real, and then provide some
example of some kind of "function" or some configuration of parts, the sum
total of which could be pointed to and say: "THAT  is redness."  at least
in a way that would pass the laugh test?

i.e. predicting a function like the square root of 4 is redness and the
square root of 9 is greenness, or 6 flat equal sides are required to make
yellow, just don't pass the laugh test, do they?  If anyone can do any
better than that, I'll stop laughing.
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