[ExI] Subjective/Objective

[John Clark]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2026 at 1:49 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> Can an external party, even in principle, know for sure what someone
> else is experiencing?*


*No, we can make educated guesses but that's all. *

*>  There is no way to empirically determine that someone who says "I'm
> seeing in my mind's eye a blue cube" is actually experiencing a
> visualisation of a blue cube at all, let alone in the same way that you
> would. In fact, it's probably very unlikely.*
>

*Maybe that's why there is no universal agreement about what is pretty,
some people say certain color combinations are pleasing while other people
say they are not. Or maybe not. Nobody knows and nobody will ever know. *

*> Even some advanced brain scanner that can reveal the exact pattern of
> neural firings in a specific brain region wouldn't help. Brains, while all
> based on the same general blueprint, differ considerably in their fine
> details.*
>

*But if somebody did have the same exact pattern of neural firings as
Mr.You then that person would be Mr.You, so Mr.You still wouldn't learn
anything new about what it would be like to be somebody else. *
 .

> *> What I'm saying is that there is absolutely NO WAY that one person can,
> without any uncertainty, know what another person is experiencing or has
> experienced in the past. We are all sealed vessels, with our own unique
> contents that is only accessible to ourselves. I don't expect that to ever
> change, even with the advent of uploading*
>

*I agree. *

*John K Clark *
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