[extropy-chat] effing

[gts]

On Fri, 02 Dec 2005 19:22:02 -0500, Acy Stapp <acy.stapp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Nope. Qualia are qualities of the observational interaction between
> the observer and the observed. They may or may not exist in some real
> sense but they certainly are not properties of the objects themselves.

Right, not intrinsic or primary properties, but secondary qualities or  
*powers*.

Snow looks white, and there's not a darned thing I can do to change that  
fact. The power to look white comes from the snow. I have no power here.  
The snow has the power.

The snow also has *primary* qualities. These exist even when no one is  
observing it. The primary qualities of snow are what we normally consider  
the "objective science" of snow.

The secondary quality of "looking white", the *power* to look white, is in  
some sense real because it "result[s] from the different modifications of  
those [real] primary qualities."


-gts