[ExI] Qualia are not in the matrix (was Re: The Matrix: Resurrections trailer)

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sun, 12 Sep 2021 at 14:05, Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Hi Stathis,
> On Sat, Sep 11, 2021 at 9:50 PM Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> But the hard problem is not solved by saying "glutamate has a redness
>> quality", since one can always ask WHY glutamate has a redness quality
>> rather than a greenness quality, or no quality at all.
>>
>
> OK, you've got me there.  But let me ask you this, do rocket scientists
> ask why force equals mass times acceleration?  No, they just use that never
> failing knowledge to dance in the heavens with their rockets.
> The same is true with redness.  Engineers don't need to know why glutamate
> and only glutamate has a redness quality.  They just need to know if they
> want to engineer a being that can know what redness is like, they can
> always use only glutamate.
>
>
>> Intrinsic qualities, like redness and greenness, are simply physical
>>> qualities of something in our brain.  That is just elementary school all
>>> day every day demonstrable physical reality, not magic.
>>>
>>
>> Well, then you are a functionalist! Praise be! The functionalist position
>> is just the above: that IF we replaced part of a person's brain and they
>> said they were experiencing exactly the same qualia (and whatever other
>> test you want to throw at them), then they would be experiencing exactly
>> the same qualia. There is no assumption that this is possible, just that IF
>> it were possible, the only reasonable conclusion would be that the qualia
>> have in fact been reproduced.
>>
>
> Again, I admit that if someone produces a redness experience from a
> function, my falsifiable claims will be falsified.  But you've got to give
> me an idea of what function it is which has any possibility of passing the
> laugh test for having redness quality.  It certainly isn't a square root
> function, or any other 'function' that I can Emagine.  Why do you never
> provide an example function that has a redness quality?  The way I'm
> providing a falsifiable example of glutamate having a redness quality.
> Because even the idea of any and all functions having a redness quality
> would be completely absurd, not passing the laugh test.
>

The function is that the person says “I see red, it looks exactly the same
to me”, that he identifies red things correctly, that if he is a painter
his paintings are just as good as before and make just as good a use of
colour as before, and everything else pertaining to red.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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