[extropy-chat] effing

[gts]

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 23:13:20 -0500, Brandon Reinhart  
<transcend at extropica.com> wrote:

> So for any object there are an infinite number of qualia of defined and
> undefined nature among any number of known or unknown dimensions? Or must
> the quale be perceived in order to come into being and from that point
> forward always exist? Or cease to exist when the last thing to perceive  
> it or have remembered perceiving it ceases to do so?

This problem has occurred to me also. I think Locke might be forced to  
concede that objects have an infinite number of possible secondary  
qualities.

However his essay is entitled "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"  
not "An Essay Concerning All Theoretical Kinds of Understanding".

> If a person is under the influence of some mind-altering substance and
> perceives an orange to have a multicolored hue they term "bervish" does
> bervish exist as a quale?

I wonder if people under the influence of mind-altering substances can  
truly experience non-existent colors. I think not.

I once thought of writing a children's book about a child who discovers a  
new color. It's an interesting idea and might make an entertaining story  
for children, but to me it seems impossible.

>  Perhaps unconscious entities do not perceive qualia.

True, and this is a possible hole in my own theory about about  
consciousness and awareness. It is possible for example that organisms  
that seem to be aware but unconscious, insects for example, experience  
nothing whatsoever.

However there exists a phenomenon in certain blind humans in which they  
seem to be able to experience vision with no conscious awareness of the  
experience. Put a chair in front of them and they will walk around it even  
with no conscious awareness of seeing it. Apparently their brains can see,  
but they have no conscious awareness of seeing.

Their experience of seeing qualia seems to be separate from their  
conscious awareness of their experience of seeing qualia. I think insect  
minds work this way. They see and experience the world, but don't know it  
-- similar and perhaps no different from the way unconscious cameras see  
the world.

> If I feed input into a program and it processes that data, is it
> experiencing some qualia of the input?

Maybe!  But perhaps it's a type of experience we cannot fathom.

> I'm just shooting the BS here, for fun.

Yeah, me too. :)

-gts