**TL;DR** Qualia is a philosophical fetish that hinders research into consciousness. To understand whether a subject has consciousness, don't ask, “Does it feel red like I do?” Ask, “Does it have its own ‘I want’?” ## Another thought experiment I really like thought experiments. Let's imagine that I am an...
TL;DR: Qualia is a philosophical fetish that's blocking progress in consciousness research. Instead of asking "does it feel red like me?", we should ask "does it have autonomous internal motivation?" - a criterion that's actually testable and substrate-independent. Epistemic status: Confident and deliberately provocative. I expect pushback. Philosophers love talking...
**TL;DR** Qualia is a philosophical fetish that hinders research into consciousness. To understand whether a subject has consciousness, don't ask, “Does it feel red like I do?” Ask, “Does it have its own ‘I want’?”
## Another thought experiment
I really like thought experiments. Let's imagine that I am an alien. I flew to Earth to study humans and understand whether they have consciousness.
I observe: they walk, talk, solve problems, laugh, cry, fall in love, argue about some qualia. I scan their brains with my scanner and see electrochemical processes, neural patterns, synchronization of activity.
I build a model to better understand them. “This is how human cognition works. This is how behavior arises. These... (read 2065 more words →)
TL;DR: Qualia is a philosophical fetish that's blocking progress in consciousness research. Instead of asking "does it feel red like me?", we should ask "does it have autonomous internal motivation?" - a criterion that's actually testable and substrate-independent.
Epistemic status: Confident and deliberately provocative. I expect pushback.
Philosophers love talking about red. Not the red rose in a vase, not the red sunset over the ocean-but the very redness of red. That elusive, ineffable, supposedly fundamental subjective experience that arises when you look at something red. They named it qualia and decided that without it, there's no consciousness.
I propose we tell qualia to f*ck off.
Not because it doesn't exist. It exists-I see red, feel... (read 1889 more words →)
As someone also born in the USSR (and still occasionally pinching myself to make sure I haven't gone back), I confirm: I've seen this pattern before.
Fear is a resource. Someone always shows up to monetize it. But here's the good news: a risk that's explicitly named is harder to exploit.