thomblake comments on Generalizing From One Example - Less Wrong

259 Post author: Yvain 28 April 2009 10:00PM

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Comment author: Annoyance 29 April 2009 03:53:17PM 0 points [-]

I don't think there are any implications about qualia; the concept there is incoherent, whereas 'mental images' aren't.

Even so, I don't think the concept is very useful. What's the difference between forming a mental image, and forming the concept of what properties an image would have in great detail?

With the tiger example: are the 'eidetic imagers' really generating a picture (or the neurological equivalent of such), or is it just that their minds fill out the properties of what they're asked to imagine in far more detail than was requested?

If I ask you to imagine a man, and then ask what color shoelaces he was wearing, is answering rapidly and without hesitation evidence that you've formed an image or merely that you generated a lot of detail that wasn't specified?

Comment author: thomblake 30 April 2009 12:59:07PM 0 points [-]

Let's not forget - 'qualia' is said in many ways. One definition is that qualia of X means "what it's like to experience X". A qualia-believer thus hears a qualia-denier saying "there's no qualia" and responds, "Do you really not think there's anything it's like to see the color red?" - thus, the parallel.