A theory of qualia: they're the faces of memory symbols — and animals may feel nothing
yeastsplainer · x · 2026-09-07
The author proposes that qualia are the distinctive physiognomies of the symbols an animal or machine uses for offline thinking: data in working memory requires a symbolic language, and each symbol needs a distinguishable form.
Argument sketch:
- Subjective experience equals the stream of episodic memory; looking back, memory is made of qualia like a book is made of words.
- Animals don't think offline or record episodic memory — like surveillance cameras discarding each frame — so reporting what it's like to be one would yield 'nothing'.
- In computers, a quale is made of bits (voltages/magnetic traces); the physical substrate of human episodic symbols is unknown but surely some persisting marks.
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