bogus comments on Book Review: The Root of Thought - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Yvain 22 July 2010 08:58AM

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Comment author: bogus 23 July 2010 03:39:31AM -2 points [-]

We can for example, use deep brain stimulation to directly stimulate emotions

We can stimulate emotions, yet we are nowhere near a satisfactory explanation of why each emotion has the psychological effects it does. It's quite clear that we can only play with the brain at a very coarse level.

Finally, a question if you don't mind: what hypothetical evidence would convince you that qualia can be explained by our current laws of physics?

Reliable brain simulation would be solid evidence here. Others have pointed out that we probably won't be able to revive cryopreserved patients without a thorough understanding of brain physics.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 23 July 2010 03:47:39AM 3 points [-]

We can stimulate emotions, yet we are nowhere near a satisfactory explanation of why each emotion has the psychological effects it does. It's quite clear that we can only play with the brain at a very coarse level.

Sure, but who cares? The point is that our ability to do this has been steadily improving and there's no indication that any part of our coarse play has turned up any evidence of any special physics at work.