4 ms·
The Chinese Room argument might have a number of problems, but it can be simplified. Put someone in a room who cannot see colours (an achromatope), and give t
by DonaldFisk 5y ago
The Chinese Room argument might have a number of problems, but it can be simplified. Put someone in a room who cannot see colours (an achromatope), and give them three different colour filters in the form of plastic sheets. A person outside the room passes sheets of paper of known colour into the room, the achromatope puts them under the colour filters, thereby determining each paper's colour, which he tells the person outside the room. The person outside the room thinks there's someone in the room who can see colours. But achromatopes can't see any colours, and will readily tell you that they have no idea what it's like to see colours.
- bonoboTP 5y agoThat's a very different situation. It's not about consciousness, but qualia, and is more like the Mary's Room [0] argument (though not the same). [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_argument
- DonaldFisk 5y agoIf you think it's very different, can you tell me when, in people or animals that we'd agree are conscious, that there's consciousness but no experience of qualia, or experience of qualia without consciousness? Experience of a stream of qualia is how I'd define consciousness. This is also consistent with the medical definition (leaving aside the other minds problem). If you have a different working definition, how does it differ from mine?
- bonoboTP 5y agoThese are all vague terms that ultimately don't seem to map to anything grounded in reality. But consciousness has something to do with seeing oneself as an agent in control, not simply executing an automatic script but being in control and knowing that one is in control, seeing the self also from the outside in a way and freely moving between these levels. I don't know if consciousness is possible without qualia. And anyone who claims to know probably also knows how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.