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You’re ascribing a material reality to a metaphor. Qualia and the character of their experience are a interesting and productive abstraction to use when workin

You’re ascribing a material reality to a metaphor. Qualia and the character of their experience are a interesting and productive abstraction to use when working through certain classes of philosophical problems, but are not a material thing to be measured in electronic circuits or nebulae or quarks or sandwiches. When you start looking for them there, you’ll find them at precisely the moment you decide to change what the word “feel” means. And maybe that’ll be convincing to you, but it’s ultimately just a language game, not a material discovery that you can reasonably insist other people acknowledge.

upwardbound 4y ago
I think most people believe that qualia physically exist and are not a metaphor. We might be able to devise a scientific instrument to measure them in the future. Our civilization is very young and I would hesitate to make statements about what might be achieved by a future civilization that could harness the power of nanotech, fusion power, quantum computers, Dyson swarms, etc.
- swatcoder 4y ago
  Well, first of all, most people don’t have that word in their vocabulary and have no interest in ever adding it. Of those comparatively few that do know it, you clearly exemplify some number that seem to believe they physically exist. I can’t count all the rest of us, so can’t speak to “most” so confidently as you can. But since you seem to be very passionate about philosophy and theories of consciousness, I hope you get an opportunity to find value and merit in some of the other ways of thinking about things. Some of the them open some pretty wild and enlightening doors. I think you’ll enjoy the journey.
  - upwardbound 4y ago
    Fair points and thank you, I appreciate the kindness
- slowmovintarget 4y ago
  I don't think that's true. Most people think that a thought is just that, a thought. It isn't physically real. There is no event in spacetime you can give coordinates for that says at this place, at that time, that feeling or experience is there, in physical form. There are people that think that, somewhere in the cosmos, experiences have length, width, duration, and energy. It belongs in the school of thought that the number pi has a physical manifestation in the universe, a length, a width, an energy. But there aren't many people who think that way.

upwardbound 4y ago

I think most people believe that qualia physically exist and are not a metaphor. We might be able to devise a scientific instrument to measure them in the future. Our civilization is very young and I would hesitate to make statements about what might be achieved by a future civilization that could harness the power of nanotech, fusion power, quantum computers, Dyson swarms, etc.

swatcoder 4y ago
Well, first of all, most people don’t have that word in their vocabulary and have no interest in ever adding it. Of those comparatively few that do know it, you clearly exemplify some number that seem to believe they physically exist. I can’t count all the rest of us, so can’t speak to “most” so confidently as you can. But since you seem to be very passionate about philosophy and theories of consciousness, I hope you get an opportunity to find value and merit in some of the other ways of thinking about things. Some of the them open some pretty wild and enlightening doors. I think you’ll enjoy the journey.
- upwardbound 4y ago
  Fair points and thank you, I appreciate the kindness
slowmovintarget 4y ago
I don't think that's true. Most people think that a thought is just that, a thought. It isn't physically real. There is no event in spacetime you can give coordinates for that says at this place, at that time, that feeling or experience is there, in physical form. There are people that think that, somewhere in the cosmos, experiences have length, width, duration, and energy. It belongs in the school of thought that the number pi has a physical manifestation in the universe, a length, a width, an energy. But there aren't many people who think that way.