[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?*


*We can make educated guesses but we cannot know. *

*> No brain scans, no dissection of the brain, no chemical test, nothing
> that we know of can verify what someone's experience is, we only have the
> word of the person who says it, and inference based on their behaviour,
> which is not proof,*
>

*I agree.  *

* > and is nowhere near detailed enough to be useful.*
>

*I wouldn't go that far. In theory if you knew enough about how somebody's
brain worked then, although you couldn't predict what they would feel, you
could predict what they would do in a given situation.  *


> * >Brains, while all based on the same general blueprint, differ
> considerably in their fine details.*
>

*Yes.*


> * It's unlikely that any two individuals would have exactly the same
> physical network of neurons*
>

*If they did have the same exact network of neurons as you then they would
be you; and even you can't know for certain what you're going to do next
until you actually do it.  *

*> there is absolutely NO WAY that one person can, without any uncertainty,
> know what another person is experiencing or has experienced in the past.*
>

*You can't even know for certain that another person is experiencing
anything. It's impossible to prove that solipsism is untrue, nevertheless I
believe it is untrue and so does every person I've ever met. I need to
believe it's untrue because I could not function if I really believed I was
the only conscious being in the universe. *

*> 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*
>

*Exactly.  *

*John K Clark*
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