3 ms·

What is qualia? I've never heard that word before, and I don't want to go down some weird rabbit hole and get lost. Got any references you could share?

• pxc 4y ago
  Qualia are elements of subjectivity, e.g., the color red or the taste of chocolate as we experience them, rather than their physical corrolaries out in the world. I think the idea of alternative 'qualia spaces' here is being used to say, essentially, that other creatures might have radically different subjectivities to the point that we would struggle to recognize them or make analogies to them, but that there would still clearly be subjective experiences for them.
  • prometheus76 4y ago
    I see now. I definitely agree with you and believe that identity transcends any effort to quantify an identity. There are elements to any and every identity (and person) that cannot be quantified with a measuring device and an Excel spreadsheet, and to ignore those elements of our experience is to ignore what it is that makes us human, in my opinion. This idea is captured well in the difference between the terms "personnel" and "human resources". The former feels much more like treating people as individuals, with needs, concerns, and abilities that are unique to the person vs. treating people as inconvenient and unreliable machines that need to be drugged into submission to the needs of the machine.