From: Metaqualia (metaqualia@mynichi.com)
Date: Wed Jan 07 2004 - 21:42:45 MST
> But, your other examples are all EXTERNAL situations... whereas
> "experiencing negative emotions" is an internal, intrinsic property of the
> human brain/mind... the comparison is not so close, is it?
Removing external factors to limit the amount of negative qualia produced in
a brain, and altering its cognitive architecture to remove those last
otherwise unavoidable annoyances to me are similar actions going toward a
same goal. I would also be happy with a completely external change if that
erased all negative qualia permanently. I only suggest we should change our
actual cognitive architecture because I know that external-only change is
impossible.
> As I tend to be an animist, I'm not so sure that qualia are unique to
> humans. I tend to think they're part of everything in the universe ...
> though with greater or lesser intensity....
I thought animism was the theory that said that biological systems are
imbued with a mysterious life force that lets them move and speak and feel
stuff, that is not related to physical processes. Since you're into AI I
think that is not what you mean right?
I also believe at least the greater majority of animals have qualia (at
least those with a mammalian brain who live in groups and have social
interactions similar to ours).
As for the intensity, I don't think animals have less intense qualia for
reasons I have explained earlier, namely
1. to the being in question, the qualia it experiences is all there is, so
how can it feel milder than anything
2. qualia evolved when there was no logical brain to plan smart responses.
Therefore it is likely that animals have just as powerful or more powerful
qualia since they lack bayesian reasoning powers.
>I think that having qualia is
> just about "existing" not specifically about "being human".... But this
is
that is what I believe too. I just extended "human" to everything that
exists, so as to remove the homo-sapiens-centric connotations from the word
we use so often to indicate what we think we are at the most basic level .
:)
mq
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