Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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From: vlsi_lib@netcom.com (Gerard Malecki)
Subject: Invariant quale spaces
Message-ID: <vlsi_libD31H7C.s3@netcom.com>
Organization: VLSI Libraries Incorporated
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 1995 00:54:47 GMT
Lines: 39


The often asked question in philosophy 'Do others see red and blue the
same way I do and not vice versa?' needs close introspection. I am at
times even led to consider the meningfulness of that question. Certainly,
the only way to find out the answer would be to be the other person,
before returning to your own former self (not possible in real life,
though). Ecah of us associates his/her sensory perceptions with quale
spaces that we are automatically led to believ that others too have the
same set of quale spaces for the same perceptions. But what is the
guarantee that even those spaces, never mind the points (which is what
the aforementioned qustion considers), are the same? For example, the
visual quales asociated with another person may not be anything at all
like what I experience. In fact, I may not even be able to *imagine*
the quales that the other person experiences when he/she sees blue. For
example, no one knows whether bats see or hear or experience soemthing
else that we cannot think of.
 
However, circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that the quale space
as well as points are similar for all humans. Human tastes in music,
colors, perfumes  and food are quite similar for most humans. Of course,
some of it may be conditioned, but there is good reason to believ that
most of it is innate. No amount of conditioning would cause anyone to
prefer the smell of rotting meat over perfume.
 
Now considering the variations in the shapes and sizes of the human brain,
one wonders how such a high degree of circumstantial consistency could
be observed. It remains true though that drugs like LSD can cause mix-up
of the qualia spaces and cause people to see sounds.
 
I think the answer may lie in algebraic group theory and topology, since
finite as well as infinite structures are most easily dealt with. And
in the case of the brain, coarse grain topology is probably as important
as deatiled interconnections to distinguish not just sight and sound, but
also blue from green.
 
 
Shankar Ramakrishnan
shankar@vlibs.com

