I ran across this in a piece on whether quantum mechanics can explain consciousness.
The “Hard Problem of Consciousness” is a now-famous term introduced by Australian philosopher David Chalmers in a 1995 paper, “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness.” The problem is usually framed in terms of qualia: the subjective qualities of our mental experiences, such as the experience of the colour red or of pain.
I think trying to link quantum mechanics to consciousness at this point in time is a fool’s errand, but we are Great Speculators as a species, are we not? My comment is on this phrase “. . . qualia: the subjective qualities of our mental experiences, such as the experience of the colour red or of pain.”
When I first heard of this concept, it seemed obvious but now I don’t think so. My current thinking is that qualia are imaginary. Consider the case of our ability to see in three dimensions. Our vision accepts light and projects it, via a lens, onto a two dimensional surface, our retina, where it is converted into neural signals. In doing that, we lose one of the three dimensions we are seeking to see, but we can recreate it by post-processing of the image just created. Similarly “the color red” is initiated by a small segment of the electromagnet spectrum, in this case, part of what we call visible light (“red” light is roughly 620 to 750 nm in wavelength). Visible light is just those EMRs that cause a response in our eyes that we can process.
Now, here is my point. Once the red light interacts with our retinas it is gone, kaput, finito, disappeared. All that remains is chemical energy in a neural network. So, our brain is not experiencing “the color red” it is experiencing neural activities we associate with the color red.
You have, I am sure seen astronomical photographs in what are called “false colors.” This is usually the case in which the “colors” of EMR being described/illustrated/etc. are not visible. As an example. you have seen a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, I am sure, but just to be clear, here is one such.
Note the blues and reds? Since we do not see microwaves, these are false colors. The colors represent different temperatures, the difference between red and blue is a tiny fraction of 1 Kelvin, so no big deal (too bad they didn’t build in the gradation into the map).
In effect, all colors we see are “false colors.” Colors are a mental interpretation of the neural impulses provided by our eyes. In other words, they aren’t real. So, the qualia of “the experience of the colour red” isn’t real either, which is why it is referred to as “the subjective qualities of our mental experiences.”
But this subjective experience bit applies to everything our minds do, so why are we trying to interpret qualia when what we want to do is understand how our brains process information? All sensory inputs are converted into neural signals, which are the only things our brains can interpret . . . subjectively.
Uncommon Sense 