Monist vs. Dualist Experiment?

[bennyboy]

That was short hand for "the world I experience is a part of an objective physical reality," since it's real enough as the collection of experiences that I've had. So the negation would be "the world I experience is not a part of an objective physical reality." There's nothing self-contradictory about it.

Try avoiding sloppy short-hands in future.

And for this particular argument, look up the objections and responses to brain-in-vat argument.

Make your own arguments or don't make them. Look up the objections and responses to lmgtfy arguments.

Your definition is too imprecise. What's "data," if not any property of any physical system? What's "information" if not any property which influences the properties of any other system? But I will be happy to restate my question: If I look at a strange system, how am I to know whether it is collecting "data" and producing "meaningful information," or just part of the ongoing cascade of packets of energy moving around the universe?

Its not my definition. And both data and information are conceptual properties - meaning, there needs to be a conscious entity observing the system for those concepts to apply. As it happens, the role of that entity can be taken on by the system itself. In the given instance, that role is taken on by you and therefore you determine what the difference is.

On a side note - are we going to go back to the original discussion, where you kept insisting upon the agnosticism of qualia?

Let's go back further than that. Let's go back to the OP thread title, and it will be obvious that this red herring you are complaining about is the central theme of the argument.

What experiment could you do to distinguish between monistm and dualism? Well, for one, you could look to see if the same physical circumstances always creates qualia, rather than just seeming to. The problem is that your stated way of establishing whether a system has qualia is to decide if it seems to.

You could also look to see if qualia can exist WITHOUT those physical circumstances-- but wait, no you can't, because science is founded exclusively on physical observations. You don't get to use a system which necessarily ASSUMES physical monism to ESTABLISH physical monism, because the entire process already begs the question.