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What is it like to be a bat?

(en.wikipedia.org)
180 points adityaathalye | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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RS-232 ◴[] No.45120056[source]
Both consciousness and experience arise from physical means. However, they are very distinct concepts and not mutually exclusive, which can lead to confusion when they are conflated.

Sensory deprived, paralyzed, or comatose individuals can be conscious but have no means to experience the outside world, and depending on their level of brain activity, they might not even have an "inner world" or mind's eye experience.

Anything that is able to be measured is able to experience. A subject like an apple "experiences" gravity when it falls from a tree. Things that do not interact with the physical world lack experience, and the closest things to those are WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles). Truly non-interacting particles (NIP) are presumed to be immeasurable.

So there you have it. The conundrum that consciousness can lack experience and unconsciousness can have experience. A more interesting question in my opinion: what is a soul?

replies(3): >>45120119 #>>45120157 #>>45121339 #
curiousguy7374 ◴[] No.45120157[source]
But I still don’t know what it’s like to be a bat

Also, if there is a soul, then how can we be confident concisouness arises from physical means? If there is a soul, it is the perfect means to differentiate concisouness and p-zombies.

replies(1): >>45120619 #
mensetmanusman ◴[] No.45120619[source]
There is a soul if you believe we aren’t all p-zombies. (Soul is the all encompassing word to distinguish this. Maybe there are better words?)
replies(1): >>45123064 #
1. curiousguy7374 ◴[] No.45123064{3}[source]
Yeah what I was trying to get at was the post I replied to said concisouness is a physical process, and the more interesting question is if souls exist.

My thinking is if soul’s exist, then we can’t call concisouness a purely physical process yet