[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[Robin Hanson]

At 11:32 AM 12/1/2005, John K Clark wrote:
>>You *cannot* declare both "I know qualia exist because I see them",
>>and also "scientific investigation cannot find qualia"
>
>Although I pretty much agree with your views on this subject I can quibble
>with the above statement. I am certain that qualia exists because I have
>access to my direct experience of physical sensation; if you hit me on the
>head with a hammer I don't need the scientific method to know that it hurts
>me.  I am also certain that my qualia is causal because the outside world
>(your hammer) can change my qualia, and my qualia (pain) can change
>things in the outside world (your nose is now bleeding).
>
>However there is no way I can prove the existence of my qualia to you
>because you can not understand my direct experience of physical sensation
>just as I do without you becoming me.  Therefore I just take it as an axiom
>of existence that other people experience qualia too and it is an inevitable
>byproduct of intelligence; and I think my axiom is as reasonable sounding as
>any in mathematics.

I pretty much agree with Eliezer - If you can see your qualia, then if we
could watch your brain closely enough we could see whatever you see.  I
think it is more accurate to say that we are built to assume that we have
direct experience.  Our brain is made to tell us that of course we have it.
But assuming something is different from having evidence of it.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323