ESR's New Take on Qualia

billswift

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1192#more-1192

ADDED: Even if you disagree with ESR's take, and many will, this is the clearest definition I have seen on what qualia is. So it should present a useful starting point, even for those who strongly disagree, to argue from.

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1192#more-1192

To repeat my point: that doens't explain why other metnal content is communicable.

Other mental content is expressible propositionally, whereas to duplicate someone's qualia you have to literally duplicate their brainstate (or at least the functional equivalent of their brainstate).

When I say "Greece is in Europe" I am making a propositional claim that is relatively independent of the precise details of how my brain represents that belief, versus how your brain does. Maybe I am picturing a map, while you are remembering Greece's EU membership. For the purposes of communicating that proposition, nobody cares about what your neur... (read more)

2[anonymous]13y

Other mental content is communicable because it's a lot simpler. All of the data of an entire human brain state, even considering only a snapshot taken at one instant in time, is many orders of magnitude of quantity/complexity beyond what the conscious mind is capable of considering and understanding.

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ESR's New Take on Qualia

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