PlaidX comments on We are not living in a simulation - Less Wrong

-9 Post author: dfranke 12 April 2011 01:55AM

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Comment author: PlaidX 12 April 2011 04:25:16AM *  12 points [-]

If my qualia were actually those of a computer chip, then rather than feeling hot I would feel purple (or rather, some quale that no human language can describe), and if you asked me why I went back indoors even though I don't have any particular objection to purple and the weather is not nearly severe enough to pose any serious threat to my health, I wouldn't be able to answer you or in any way connect my qualia to my actions.

But in the simulation, you WOULD have an objection to purple, and you would call purple "hot", right? Or is this some haywire simulation where the simulated people act normally except they're completely baffled as to why they're doing any of it? Either what you're saying is incredibly stupid, or I don't understand it. Wait, does that mean I'm in a simulation?

Comment author: dfranke 12 April 2011 12:01:06PM 0 points [-]

Is this some haywire simulation where the simulated people act normally except they're completely baffled as to why they're doing any of it?

Yes. A simulation in which people experienced one sort of qualia but behaved as though they were experiencing another would go completely haywire.

Comment author: DSimon 13 April 2011 02:08:39PM 2 points [-]

This doesn't seem right. If they experience qualia A but react exactly as though they were experiencing qualia B... how's that practically different from just experiencing qualia B?

You might be able to tell the difference between the two qualia by somehow arranging to experience both subjective points of view through a telepathy machine or something. However, considering a single individual's viewpoint and actions, if they get "purple" when it's too hot outside and stop being "purple" when they went somewhere cool, then the person's actions are the same as if they were avoiding the qualia "hot" or "sour" or "flarglblargl", and the system doesn't go haywire at all.

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