David Deutsch is not right about everything, but he's right about this. Wonderful talk.
After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up (David Deutsch | TED2019) https://www.ted.com/talks/david_deutsch_after_billions_of_years_of_monotony_the_universe_is_waking_up?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread … via @TEDTalks
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What specifically isn’t David right about, Dan? This could be a very interesting conversation…
The Beginning of Infinity, P153-4: Qualia are neither describable nor predictable—a unique property . . . . I consider this exciting evidence that there is a fundamental discovery to be made . . . Daniel Dennett draws the opposition conclusion, namely that qualia do not exist!”
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I have always found it odd that the feeling of mystery which some associate with qualia so often leads to the belief that there is necessarily something terribly deep going on!
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Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard, and certainly doesn’t discount it’s existence
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Apart from that section, what do you think of the book as a whole? Worth a read?
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As far as I am concerned: yes, absolutely. One of the best books I have ever read. It might be an idea to read The Fabric of Reality first, but it’s not a must.
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The astonishing thing is that in support of “neither describable nor predictable”, Deutsch offers *not a single argument* but just uncritically assumes it to be true.
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Erm...actually the majority of p153 is dedicated to his argument: the thought experiment of the color blind biochemist.
@DavidDeutschOxf - Show replies
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It's hard to figure out how qualia could "not exist." I am familiar with the idea that our brain tricks us into believing we have qualia, but that seems like a restatement of the fact that we have qualia. It leaves all mysteries surrounding it unresolved.
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Maybe Dennett’s “Quining Qualia” will help? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=12998300327839389829&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5 …
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1/2 I would argue that there is lots about qualia that is predictable. For example, I predict that any 2 qualia whose physical substrate is
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similar will be experienced as more similar than a third qualia whose substrate is measurably dissimilar.
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