handoflixue comments on Seeing Red: Dissolving Mary's Room and Qualia - Less Wrong

38 Post author: orthonormal 26 May 2011 05:47PM

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Comment author: handoflixue 24 July 2011 01:24:56PM 1 point [-]

If Mary had never counted more than 100 objects before, and today she counted 113 sheep in a field, we wouldn't expect her to exclaim "Oh, so that's what 113 looks like!"

I'd think that partly this is because 113 is an abstract internal representation - it can't be surprising, because we have to build it for ourselves. There is no "experience of 113" in normal human cognition. If I could just look at a pile of objects and go "That's 113" the way I go "that's 3!" or "that's 4!", I could imagine very well being taken back and going "Oh, so that's what 113 looks like o.o"

Equally, while digestion happens, it's not something I have any conscious awareness of. I've had various moments in my life where I've had a sudden visceral understanding of "oh, so that's what that internal process feels like o.o" I'd certain expect the sensation of "feeling a single food item as it passes through my digestion" would throw up that flag in short order.