Monist vs. Dualist Experiment?

[bennyboy]

Assuming that you happen to know that all the brain functions of humans have been replicated in the robot - why would you be suspicious?

Because I don't know for sure that function is the only determinant of actual qualia. The only way brain function could be exactly replicated is by making an actual brain. But then you'd have a brain, not a robot.

So you're talking about function of a certain NATURE-- self-reference, etc. but not of an identical mechanism. Just because we think certain kinds of data processing are involved in qualia doesn't mean wherever that kind of processing occurs there IS qualia. That pretty much defines a false syllogism.

Compare a blind man trying to relay visual information or a deaf man trying to relay auditory information. Without direct experience of the subject, talking intelligibly about it's qualitative experience is not possible. If the entity can understand what you mean when you say things like "I feel" and reply in similar terms, that is a good reason to assume its capacity for subjective experience.

What does "understand" mean? If you mean, process input and give a consistent output, fine. Otherwise, understanding implies qualia. But how are you to know which kind of understanding the robot exhibits? By asking it if it's "really feeling?"