RE: Proving What We Already "Know"
July 7, 2022 at 8:38 pm
(This post was last modified: July 7, 2022 at 8:42 pm by bennyboy.)
(July 7, 2022 at 7:56 pm)The Grand Nudger Wrote: That's how you experience danger, but I think we can safely say that bugs with no noticeable sense of self are still preyed upon, still in danger. I guess it's nice that they don't feel terror..in that event....like we do?
Does that matter? Does it make a difference, in your estimation?
I think even insects experience value via qualia of some type, and I suppose that they all experience displeasure at SOME things that are a threat to their survival-- even if it's just an awareness of toxicity in a solution.
At some scale, I have to hope that's not true, or I'm guilty of the murder of 10 to the power of idunno sentient yeast-- for sure more than all the macro-organisms that have ever existed, I suspect. If God is a yeast, I might be in some trouble.
As for "being in danger," we kind of have a God's-eye view. A yeast might just be happily consuming sugar and preparing to clone itself, but WE can say "Oh. . . the boiler overheated, and that whole batch of yeast is going to be ruined (aka killed)" WE know that the yeast are in danger.
The same goes for inorganic systems. I can definitely see that during an avalanche, my car is in danger. But that's a different thing.
If there was NOTHING capable of experiencing qualia at all, I don't think "danger" really means anything.
