The notion of "qualia" confuses me. Tracking down such a thing sounds like trying to find the essential "Tuxness" of a given Linux installation. If I install

The notion of "qualia" confuses me. Tracking down such a thing sounds like trying to find the essential "Tuxness" of a given Linux installation. If I install one kernel patch, does that make the system "less Linux-y"? What if that patch was a bug fix by Torvalds himself? Would that have the opposite effect? I know the answer to the questions above: they're nonsense questions, so answers don't even enter the equation. We have identified specific modules of the brain that, among other things, let us distinguish faces from mere shapes, friends from strangers (even when it comes to the same individual), and language processing itself. Our own sense of self seems to reduce to a distinct, toggle-able neurological phenomenon. In short, the very idea of qualia reduces to just various artifacts of our brain's multiple systems of abstraction.