Re: more neurons = more valenced consciousness, does the full report address the hidden qualia possibility? (I didn’t notice it at a quick glance.) My sense was that people who argue for more neurons = more valenced consciousness are typically assuming hidden qualia, but your objections involving empirical studies are presumably assuming no hidden qualia.
We have a report on conscious subsystems coming out I believe next week, which considers the possibility of non-reportable valenced conscious states.
Also (speaking only about my own impressions), I’d say that while some people who talk about neuron counts might be thinking of hidden qualia (eg Brian Tomasik), it’s not clear to me that that is the assumption of most. I don’t think the hidden qualia assumption, for example, is an explicit assumption of Budolfson and Spears or of MacAskill’s discussion in his book (though of course I can’t speak to what they believe privately).
Re: more neurons = more valenced consciousness, does the full report address the hidden qualia possibility? (I didn’t notice it at a quick glance.) My sense was that people who argue for more neurons = more valenced consciousness are typically assuming hidden qualia, but your objections involving empirical studies are presumably assuming no hidden qualia.
We have a report on conscious subsystems coming out I believe next week, which considers the possibility of non-reportable valenced conscious states.
Also (speaking only about my own impressions), I’d say that while some people who talk about neuron counts might be thinking of hidden qualia (eg Brian Tomasik), it’s not clear to me that that is the assumption of most. I don’t think the hidden qualia assumption, for example, is an explicit assumption of Budolfson and Spears or of MacAskill’s discussion in his book (though of course I can’t speak to what they believe privately).
Thinking that much about anthropics will be common within the movement, at least.
Here’s the report on conscious subsystems: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vbhoFsyQmrntru6Kw/do-brains-contain-many-conscious-subsystems-if-so-should-we
I’ve given a little thought to this hidden qualia hypothesis but it remains very confusing for me.
To what extent should we expect to be able to tractably and knowably affect such hidden qualia?
Here’s the report on conscious subsystems: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/vbhoFsyQmrntru6Kw/do-brains-contain-many-conscious-subsystems-if-so-should-we