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What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

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Re: What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

#22

Post by jubilanti »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #4

I know what it's like to be a bat. I don't have anqualia, the inability to imaginatively summon what an experience is like. In other words, I have the ability to imagine what an experience is like. Do others not have this?

Almost everyone has the capacity for intersubjective imagination or empathy. But part of what it's like to be a bat is to NOT have human level cognition and knowledge, to have grown up with only memories from the bat world, not the human world. When you imagine what it is like to be a bat, you can exit that imagination at any time. You probably have a theoretical and applied knowledge of sonar from human science and technology. Part of what it means to be a bat is that you don't have this. Paradoxically, human scientists probably know a lot more about how bats navigate the world than bats do, but part of what it means to be a bat is navigating the world from only what is accessible to the bat world.

It is kind of like how a rich trust fund kid can give away all their wealth, change their name, disown all their family and social connections, take a vow of poverty, take so many drugs that they forget everything they learned, and go live on the streets -- but they will never know what it is like to be born into poverty.

Re: What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

#25

Post by jubilanti »

kelseyfrog wrote: post #9
satvikpendem wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only pretend to know, that's not true knowledge.

How do you know that? Do you know what it's like to be me?

You're close, really close! None of us know what it is like to be anyone else, that's the point. We think we can imagine we know, but we truly do not.

Re: What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

#29

Post by LiquidSky »

lisper wrote: post #27

What is it like to feel ill? What is it like to eat vanilla ice cream? What is it like to fall in love? What is it like to solve a math problem for the first time? What is it like to wonder what something is like?

Today a Hacker News user discovers the concept of qualia.

Re: What is it like to be a bat? (1974) [pdf]

#30

Post by bezier-curve »

lisper wrote: post #27

What is it like to feel ill? What is it like to eat vanilla ice cream? What is it like to fall in love? What is it like to solve a math problem for the first time? What is it like to wonder what something is like?

What is it like to only comment about the headline?
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