Planet Qualia

The ability to see color conferred a selective advantage in evolution, allowing animals to see possible food from further away.  A byproduct of that is our ability to see sunsets. But does the ability to see a sunset convey a selective advantage?  Well, yes. It allows us to realize thatContinue Reading

A curious question which bears asking is what happens to the complex of qualia we call self after we die?  If qualia is another life form, not a carbon-based life form, but a different sort, then it’s to its advantage to keep this complex that we call the self aliveContinue Reading

Qualia always suggests ideals. We have an ideal of a ripe blackberry, but we won’t know until we taste it whether it is underripe or overripe or perfect. It’s the ideal. It’s our aesthetic sense of beauty and sublimity, which tells us whether a berry is moving towards ripeness orContinue Reading