According to the criticism of black and white Mary , it cannot be ruled out that the origin of qualia is physically existing information. Bl...
According to the criticism of black and white Mary, it cannot be ruled out that the origin of qualia is physically existing information. Black and white Mary’s critique, however, does not answer the question of what kind of physical representation the qualia is and how it is created. We still have not reached the physical reality of qualia. Although we have found a necessary physical process related to the development of qualia, we still have no physical explanation for how this physical process creates qualia, the feeling. However, the line of thought so far suggests that it is worthwhile to continue to look for the objective, physically existing origin of qualia, the feeling, the subjective experience.
Qualia can thus be a physical process, one created by the senses, but not the same as sensory activity. Suppose qualia is a physical condition and/or process of the brain. In this case, the best definition for qualia: qualia is a high level (having broad and distant associative relationships) of brain state and activity, a complex interaction of a unique configuration of neurons that is created during sensory stimulation.
The unique configuration and complex interaction of neurons can also be created by knowledge acquired indirectly. Black and white Mary knows all about colors, yet, seeing color is a new experience for her. What is the difference between the brain activity of neural structures created in the two ways? What are qualia?
During the natural formation of the qualia, the brain structure is generated by sensory activity. In the case of black and white Mary, we have seen that neuronal activity developed without sensory organs is never the same as neuronal activity developed with sensory activity. Mary can also gain a certain degree of imagination, a certain level of qualia through indirect learning, but this will never be the same as the brain activity that is developed by the senses. Sensory activity is a source of irreplaceable profound information.
The qualia, according to this, is the activity of a high-level, complex, unique neural structure conditioned by the senses. What creates the non-physical nature of qualia when qualia is a physically existing neural structure and activity?
The non-physical appearance of the qualia is caused by two characteristics of the neural structure and activity that have developed: the activity of the neural structure is not directly related to the underlying cause, and the neural activity is unique in nature.
The non-physical appearance of the qualia is originated in part by the lack of the physical senses that cause the feeling of qualia but create the neural structure of qualia. The neural activity that creates the experience of qualia is the result of a complex neural structure. Once a high-level neural structure is established, its activity can be triggered by any of the associatively related neural pathways. Thus, the activity of the qualia, the experience, the nervous-structure activity can appear without sensory activity. The activity of high-level neuronal structure can also be induced by the activity of distant associative connections. As an equally important function, the high-level neuronal structural activity can also generate distant neuronal activity through associative relations. The subjective experience of qualia is created by the internally represented active state of the creating causes that are not physically present.
The non-physical nature of qualia, on the other hand, is caused by that qualia is subjective in nature. My qualia are something that only I have, belongs to me only and exclusively. However, the subjective nature of qualia is not caused by a lack of physical representation, but by its uniqueness. The neuronal structure that creates the experience of qualia is unique, characteristic only of the person whose brain created it based on the sensory activity of personal experience. The qualia are physical representations characterized by the uniqueness of neuronal connections created by the activity of the unique structure of neurons.
Perhaps it is more appropriate to approach the physical reality of qualia by examining how the corresponding complex neural structure is created and what dynamic neural activity means. If the ability to ride a bike, the sense of balance is the physical state of the brain, then how does the ability to ride a bike develop? Seeing color is an objective physical process, but the experience of color is not a static state but the result of a dynamic and unique neural activity.
So what is the physical representation of qualia? What is the dynamic neural activity that creates qualia as an experience, as a feeling? The qualia that can be associated with red is all the neuronal activity that is created by the unique configuration of neurons built when we experience red in any way, and is thus related to all the traces of memory associated with red color perception. This neural configuration becomes active when any of its associative connections are active, i.e., any previous memory or sensation associated with the color red becomes active.
Qualia is mysterious not because it is not tied to physical representation, but because it is unique and does not require the physical activity that caused its formation.
What makes cycling qualia? What makes color vision experience? How does it feel to be a bat? How will it be, how can a robot have feelings?
The physical equivalent of qualia is the activity of the complex configuration of neurons. The neuronal configuration is made up of dynamically changing neural connections that form at the time of a given active sensation. Qualia is an activated complex memory trace. The qualia, the subjective sensation is a physically existing neuronal structure, a dynamic, constantly evolving, and changing activity. The qualia are the neural representation of perception with internal, associational relationships.
Why do qualia seem to be a phenomenon without physical representation? Because the physical activity that creates the qualia can be activated without the actual activity of the sensory organs that create the qualia. Color becomes an experience because it can be recalled even when the color is not physically present, and the sight of the color evokes unique, personal memories of the earlier sight of the color.
Does a cycling robot have a subjective sense of cycling? If the way of cycling is simply encoded in the robot, it is not the result of a high level (having a significant number and wide associative relationships) of dynamic activity of brain structure. The pre-programmed ability of cycling skills works like a biological reflex. It is the result of a low-level and non-dynamic process. We don’t have an experience of our heartbeat either. Reflex-like activities do not create a high-level neural activity, such kind of senso-motoric activity does not activate a significant number and wide range of neural associative relationships.
So what are qualia? A complex sensation that does not require the activity of the creating senses. Qualia is the activity of a high-level nerve structure formed by the activity of the senses, the echo of perception in the brain that can be evoked even without sensation.
When does the ability to ride a bike become an experience of qualia for a robot? When the ability to ride a bike is created in a robot’s control system by a learning process supported by its own senses that has a significant number of broad associative connections.
How will the color become qualia for the robot? If seeing color creates a significant number of broad associative relationships in the robot that can be activated without color perception through the associative relationships that have been established at color perception.
When does a robot become a sentient being? If the sensory activity of the robot creates a significant number of broad associative relationships that can be activated without creating sensory activity.
What does it mean to be Mary? To be Mary is to have all the high-level, i.e., significant, and wide-ranging associative relationships that Mary’s senses have established during Mary’s life.
How does it feel to be a bat? It is similar to having all the high-level, i.e., significant, and wide-ranging associative connections by being activated through my own neural connections, that the bat’s sensory organs have established during the bat’s life.
What is it like to be a robot? To be a robot is to have all the high-level, i.e. significant and wide-ranging associative connections that the robot’s sensory organs have made during the operation of the robot in an activable way.
Qualia is a physical phenomenon.
Brain {button_primary} Human {button_primary} Mind and body {button_primary} Mind state {button_primary} Philosophy {button_primary} Qualia {button_primary} Subjective world {button_primary}
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