<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki@gmail.com> wrote:</span><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">### Let me ask you this:</span><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="y_msg_container"><br>> Blind persons with cortical vision implants claim to see
things.. </div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><snip></span><br></div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">> Would you perhaps claim that the seat of qualia is the cortex, not the<br>> primitive subcortical nuclei substituted by digital signal processing?</div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">That seems reasonable to me. Some neuroscientists are working on identifying the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and I believe they involve a large swath of neurons in the cortex. </div><div class="y_msg_container"><br>> But, what if in a few years some researchers produce implants capable</div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> of correcting cortical blindness, caused by damage to the occipital</span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> cortex? </span><br><br></div><div
class="y_msg_container">Digital implants can certainly stimulate the experience of qualia in the NCC, but so too can electrical shocks or any other external stimulus. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">I do not believe such implants can themselves have or embody conscious experience of qualia. </span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">Gordon </div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>