Philosophers often talk about the difficulty of truly understanding what someone else’s subjective experience is really like, but we rarely make a genuine effort at it. What is it like to be you? What universal human experiences are you missing without realizing it? Share the nuances of your particular qualia and figure out neat ways in which people’s minds differ!
Topics we might explore: aphantasia, continuity of personhood, variation in subjective well-being, presence of an internal monologue, whatever else comes up in discussion!
Structurally, the way we'll probably run this is to open with some brief prompts to consider, then split into small groups for discussion, rotating between groups as you wish. Around 8:30 or 9, we'll get back together and share any particularly interesting takeaways. When I've run this event in the past, things seem to go pretty well with informal unstructured conversations between people, so that's what we'll try here.
Required materials: not being a p-zombie, a willingness to introspect.
When: 7:00PM, Tuesday, October 12.
Where: It'll be at an apartment in the financial district in Manhattan. Sign up to the Google Group and say you found the meetup on LessWrong for more details.
Philosophers often talk about the difficulty of truly understanding what someone else’s subjective experience is really like, but we rarely make a genuine effort at it. What is it like to be you? What universal human experiences are you missing without realizing it? Share the nuances of your particular qualia and figure out neat ways in which people’s minds differ!
Topics we might explore: aphantasia, continuity of personhood, variation in subjective well-being, presence of an internal monologue, whatever else comes up in discussion!
Structurally, the way we'll probably run this is to open with some brief prompts to consider, then split into small groups for discussion, rotating between groups as you wish. Around 8:30 or 9, we'll get back together and share any particularly interesting takeaways. When I've run this event in the past, things seem to go pretty well with informal unstructured conversations between people, so that's what we'll try here.
Required materials: not being a p-zombie, a willingness to introspect.
When: 7:00PM, Tuesday, October 12.
Where: It'll be at an apartment in the financial district in Manhattan. Sign up to the Google Group and say you found the meetup on LessWrong for more details.
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