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Comment by dqpb | Hacker News Reader

I've always thought consciousness is basically just feedback (like with microphones). Sensing yourself sensing yourself etc.

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That's self-awareness. But it doesn't explain qualia like the sensation of the color red.

I suggest you look into Roger Scruton's interpretation of Wittgenstein's private language argument. I think it might go something like this:

You want an explanation for the sensation of the color red? Alright, I'll try, as long as you help me out: what exactly is the sensation of the color red? I need to have a good grasp on what we're talking about here.

Can you describe it? It's okay, take your time.

FIN

If you're trying to suggest qualia don't exist or don't have anything to do with consciousness, then sure you'll find some people who agree. But it's not a mainstream position.

And of course the entire point is that qualia are ineffable. That's part of the definition. It's the feature, not a bug. But if you want to deny that you have conscious sensation then go ahead. ;)

At some point I figured that "everything has qualia" and "qualia doesn't exist", when taken to their logical conclusions, are actually identical beliefs. Though I suspect I'll need quite a lot more crack cocaine to figure out how.

This argument is so empty of meaning it is itself ineffable.

I don't understand the mystery around "qualia". You sense something and it propagates through the system priming other neurons. It's just learned association.

What I'm saying is different from self awareness. Self awareness could arguably just be having a model of yourself. I'm talking about a sensory feedback loop.

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