X-Message-Number: 25093
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 13:08:08 -0800
Subject: The Questions of Thomas
From: <>

Dear Thomas:

You wrote:

"Basically, Richard, you haven't answered my questions. If our 
qualia-
experiencer is not part of our brain, then what is it?"

I have answered this many times: the qualia-experiencer IS a part 
of our brain. It is a physical thing existing within our heads.

You wrote:

"And why is it that this Q-Exer cannot be destroyed without the 
person losing all their senses?"

Because the definition of a qualia experiencer is a thing that 
experiences qualia. Therefore, it remains as long as qualia are 
experienced. If you like, think of it as the hardware of 
consciousness---i.e. the part of your brain responsible for 
conscious experience. Obviously, it still exists as long as there 
is any conscious experience, even if the nature of those 
experiences are reduced in scope (e.g. you go blind).

[snip]

You wrote:

"And again, just why is a perfect copy followed by destruction of 
the original different FOR OUR QUALIA-EXPERIENCER than the kind of 
slow change we all undergo?"

The existence of the copy is irrelevant. Concentrate on what 
happens to the qualia experiencer: it is utterly destroyed. The 
existence of other qualia experiencers in the universe is 
irrelevant, even if one of those qualia experiencers had the same 
atomic arrangement as the one that was destroyed.

Think of it in this way: you have an apple. You copy the apple, 
atom for atom. Now you destroy the original. Does the original 
still exist? No. The existence of a copy does not imply the 
original exists, because it does not---the original was destroyed. 
If the apple had some inner subjective life, then that life would 
be destroyed when the apple was destroyed. It has no mystical 
essence that is transferred by the universe to its copy.

I am sure that you can appreciate the difference between change and 
destruction. If you change a thing of class A, it remains a class A 
thing, as long as it retains all properties of items belonging to 
class A. You can change a light bulb, subtely, but as long as it 
retains all the properties of things that are light bulbs, then it 
remains the same light bulb. When you destroy an object, on the 
other hand, it has no properties, and therefore it ceases to be 
anything.

The lesson is that change is not equal to destruction; at least, it 
needn't be. Obviously, if you change something of class A so much 
that it ceases to be a class A thing, but then change it again to 
make it a class A thing, you have destroyed the original class A 
thing, and created a new one. For example, disassembling a tree 
atom by atom until it ceases to be a tree, and then building it 
again, atom by atom, until it becomes a tree. Clearly, the original 
tree was destroyed. This doesn't matter in the case of trees, but 
in the case of humans with subjective inner lives, it does matter. 
At least, if you care about that subjective inner life.

Change of the type we undergo on a daily basis preserves the qualia 
experiencer, which results in personal survival.

[snip]

Best Regards,

Richard B. R.

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