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cliche · 11-04-2003, 09:22 AM

cnor, Bill O'Rights - you should both read the excellent essay by Daniel Dennett "Quining Qualia".

He puts it much better than I ever could; essentially "qualia" are the (theoretical) internal experiences - so you have something like:

external world ---(sensed)---> qualia ---(interpreted)---> action

What I believe (and he explains ever so nicely) is that qualia do not exist; hence:

external world ---(sensed and interpreted)---> action

ie that you can't talk about some "internal state" which means that "if I saw what you see, I'd see it as yellow" because the internal state doesn't exist. The representation of "orange" in your system is dependent both on the inputs (senses) and outputs (actions) rather than, as would be required for the "if I saw..." to be possible, only on the inputs.

I probably haven't explained that very well; please tell me what you think and I'll try a bit better. But would definitely recommend the essay.

11-04-2003, 09:22 AM	#11 (permalink)
cliche Rookie Location: Oxford, UK	cnor, Bill O'Rights - you should both read the excellent essay by Daniel Dennett "Quining Qualia". He puts it much better than I ever could; essentially "qualia" are the (theoretical) internal experiences - so you have something like: external world ---(sensed)---> qualia ---(interpreted)---> action What I believe (and he explains ever so nicely) is that qualia do not exist; hence: external world ---(sensed and interpreted)---> action ie that you can't talk about some "internal state" which means that "if I saw what you see, I'd see it as yellow" because the internal state doesn't exist. The representation of "orange" in your system is dependent both on the inputs (senses) and outputs (actions) rather than, as would be required for the "if I saw..." to be possible, only on the inputs. I probably haven't explained that very well; please tell me what you think and I'll try a bit better. But would definitely recommend the essay. __________________ I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -- John Cage (1912 - 1992)