Looking at a menu is a rather pale imitation of the level of knowledge given Mary.

No matter how much information is on the menu, it's not going to make you feel full. You could watch videos of the food being prepared for days, get a complete molecular map of what will happen in your taste buds and digestive system, and still die of hunger before you actually know what the food tastes like.

I contend that she can know, that there is nothing left for her to be surprised about when that neuron does fire.

In which case, we're using different definitions of what it means to know what something is like. In mine, knowing what something is "like" is not the same as actually experiencing it -- which means there is room to be surprised, no matter how much specificity there is.

This difference exists because in the human neural architecture, there is necessarily a difference (however slight) between remembering or imagining an experience and actually experiencing it. Otherwise, we could become frightened upon merely imagining that a bear was in the room with us. (IOW, at least some portion of our architecture has to be able to represent "this experience is imaginary".)

However, none of this matters in the slightest with regard to dissolving Mary's Room. I'm simply pointing out that it isn't necessary to assume perfect knowledge in order to dissolve the paradox. It's just as easily dissolved by assuming imperfect knowledge.

And all the evidence we have suggests that the knowledge is -- and possibly must -- be imperfect.

But materialism doesn't require that this knowledge be perfectable, since to a true materialist, knowledge itself is not separable from a representation, and that representation is allowed (and likely) to be imperfect in any evolved biological brain.

Hi.