I look at "qualia" as experiences: phenomena two people can share only
if they both have had the experience. Anyone naturally sited "knows"
what "blue" is but someone blind from birth has no idea and to them it
is just a word sighted people use to describe one of their colors. Now
it may be that your "blue" and my "blue" are not the same; this is
unimportant.
This will I think be the biggest problem we will have if it ever happens
that we meet aliens. Our experiences -- colors, tastes, internal
sensations such as hunger and pain, and even our emotions -- fear, love,
anxiety, jealousy -- will all be uncommunicable unless we share
analogous sense and emotion systems, something that is probably not
likely.
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