Self-reporting demonstrates that qualia is real, but a lack doesn't demonstrate its absence. People may not have had qualia back then, we don't know. I am confi

Self-reporting demonstrates that qualia is real, but a lack doesn't demonstrate its absence. People may not have had qualia back then, we don't know. I am confident that at least some people have it now, and it makes more sense that everyone (with a reasonably functioning brain, at least) does than that it's somehow piecemeal. I don't think the notion that qualia is an illusion makes any sense. If it's an illusion, that means that we somehow have the perception of it without it actually happening. But that very perception is qualia. It's like saying that we don't really perceive red, it's just an illusion, we just think we perceive it. But the thinking is the act. It's different from your stoned college discussion because we know that something is going on. I have the sensation of being me, in a way that known physics can't even address. I'm fairly certain other people have this as well, based on how they talk and behave. I can't quantify it and I can't even really describe it, but it's clearly real. In fact, my own sensation of being me is the thing I know with the most certainty. Everything else could potentially be faked, but not this.