From: Zeb Haradon (zharadon@inconnect.com)
Date: Thu Dec 16 1999 - 19:09:35 MST
-----Original Message-----
From: John Calvin <mercurial@disinfo.net>
To: extropians@extropy.com <extropians@extropy.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 1999 10:07 PM
Subject: question:qualia
>Hello, I am new to the list and have been following the discussion on
"qualia" or is that
> Qualia? I am a little confused in regards to what exactly a "qualia" is,
and was
> wondering if anyone would be able to recommend any reading material to
further
> illuminate the term.
>
Qualia is basically experience, or sensation. But the term 'qualia' is used
to differentiate it from functional aspects. For example, a computer which
can analyze wavelengths of light and returns the value of the color of the
light has the functional "sensation" of experiencing colors, but presumably,
does not have the same visual sensation we have when we experience red
(assuming the computer is a normal old 20th century computer).
The term "zombie" means an individual exactly the same as a human, composed
of the same molecules, and exactly the same functionally, but which does not
experience qualia.
A list of papers on the subject and related subjects can be found here:
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/online.html
The philosophy Dan is espousing comes mainly from a book called
"Consciousness Explained", by Daniel Dennett - it just occurred to me that
the Dan posting to this list may very well be Dan Dennett in disguise!
>Also, Dan, I was wondering if you could enlighten me as to the functional
differences
> between Emotion and "emotion" or Experience and "experience" etc. As
well, you
> mentioned in one of your earlier posts that you had a complete
philisophical system
> that had us all as zombies and remained internally consisten, is this
something you
> have down in writing, something that you could e-mail to me. I would be
very
> interested in reading it.
>
>Thank you
>
>
>
>John Calvin
>mercurial@disinfo.net
>
>_____________________________________________________________
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http://www.disinfo.com, your gateway to the underground.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zeb Haradon
My personal website:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~haradon
A movie I'm directing:
http://www.elevatormovie.com
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