This post proposes that qualia, the subjective qualities of experience, function similarly to letters in a written language. The author suggests that qualia are external objects borrowed by the mind to serve as internal variables, much like letters are used in mathematical equations. This analogy helps explain phenomena like the inverted spectrum and the finite, yet large, set of qualia available to humans. The author speculates that qualia might be self-referential mathematical objects that interface with the world structurally. AI
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IMPACT Offers a philosophical perspective on consciousness that could inform future AI alignment and interpretability research.
RANK_REASON This is an opinion piece discussing the nature of qualia and consciousness, drawing an analogy to linguistic symbols.