[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

[John Clark]

On Mon, Feb 13, 2017 at 4:19 PM, Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com>
wrote:



> ​> ​
> Within my model, there are multiple types of qualia, there is composite
> qualia and elemental qualia.  A composite quale is made up of lots of
> elemental qualia bound together.
> ​
> So
> ​
> , composite Brent redness, has all my memories of red bound to it.  And
> composite John red, instead, has all of Johns memories of red bound to it.
> And, there must be some common elemental qualities from which these complex
> objects are built.
>
> ​As you have correctly pointed out electromagnetic radiation with a
wavelength of 700 nanometers is is not anybodies red qualia, although it is
part of it. The red qualia results from the interaction of 700 nanometer
light with a particular brain, change either one and the resulting qualia
produced could change.    ​


> It is very possible that there is some common qualitative element such as
> plain redness, that your and my composite redness qualia share.
>

​Yes it's possible, maybe your qualia experience of red is identical to
mine, but we know from mathematics that ​some statements are true but can
never be proven even in theory, and this is one of them. My brain is
different from yours, so the only way I could know for certain what it's
like when you interact with 700 nanometer light is for something to change
the way the atoms in my brain are organized until it is identical with your
brain; but even then "I" still would't know because then I'd no longer be
John Clark, I'd be Brent Allsop.


> ​> ​
> Whenever I talk about “effing the ineffable” I am always assuming and
> talking about an elemental level, that can be shared between brains,
>
>
​Experiencing the ineffable is easy, just loo at a red strawberry, but
communicating the
ineffable
​is a contradiction in terms.​

  John K Clark










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