[ExI] Subjective/Objective

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 08/07/2026 04:14, Jason Resch wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2026, 1:48 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?
>
>
> I think it is a tautology that one can never know exactly what it's like to be another, unless one's mental state is identical with another.
>
> A "conscious state" represents everything that an entity directly knows/apprehends at a particular point in time. It is the totality of their awareness. It is in a very real sense, the only thing they know (at least at that point in time). Since it is the only thing one knowa, one can know no else. So Alice in conscious state A cannot know what it's like to be Bob in conscious state B, since Alice only knows A, she cannot know B.


That sums it up much more concisely and probably more accurately than I did!

-- 
Ben