[ExI] Theoretical Breakthrough? Was Re: Do digital computers feel?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Thu., 23 Feb. 2017 at 2:10 am, Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com>
wrote:

> HI Stathis,
> Yes, we probably do need some emotional distance and thank you for being
> so gracious kind patient and helpfull.  I apologize if I have made this too
> emotional.
>
> Can we back up a bit, and go over some things, so we can be sure there are
> no miss underandings with some of this very complex stuff?
>
> For example do you understand what I mean by subjective qualitative
> discern-ability?
>

I think you mean the subjective ability of a conscious being to tell the
difference between two types off qualia, such as red and green.

There are two aspects to the discernability. One is subjective, the other
is objective and directly observable by an outsider. My point, which I have
been going on and on about and which I still don't think you understand, is
that if qualia were due to a particular structure or substance, such as red
qualia from glutamate, it would be possible to decouple the subjective from
the objective. By swapping glutamate for a glutamate-equivalent that
behaves the same in the system but lacks the red qualia, the subject would
be able to discern red from green and would say that everything looks just
the same, but his red qualia would have either disappeared or changed. I
don't think you understand that this MUST be the case if red qualia are due
to glutamate. I suspect you think that if the glutamate changes, then the
qualia change and so the behaviour must change as well; which is wrong,
wrong, wrong.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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