Knowing what-it-is-like only requires the “like”, not the “is”. This would be satisfied by e.g. a provably accurate simulation of the consciousness of a bat that I can enter while still retaining my memories.
Incremental progress comes about through better understanding of what makes something conscious and how an entity’s sensory and computational abilities affect the qualities of their subjectively-experienced existence. Much has already been made.
Isn’t that not really being a bat, then? You’ll never know what it’s like to be a bat; you’ll only know what it’s like for humans who found themselves in a bat body.
It’s a bit hard to specify exactly what would satisfy me, so saying that I would “retain my memories” might be overbroad. Stil, you get the point, I hope: my goals is to be able to experience fundamentally different kinds of consciousness, where different senses and considerations have different “gut-level” significance.
Knowing what-it-is-like only requires the “like”, not the “is”. This would be satisfied by e.g. a provably accurate simulation of the consciousness of a bat that I can enter while still retaining my memories.
Incremental progress comes about through better understanding of what makes something conscious and how an entity’s sensory and computational abilities affect the qualities of their subjectively-experienced existence. Much has already been made.
Isn’t that not really being a bat, then? You’ll never know what it’s like to be a bat; you’ll only know what it’s like for humans who found themselves in a bat body.
It’s a bit hard to specify exactly what would satisfy me, so saying that I would “retain my memories” might be overbroad. Stil, you get the point, I hope: my goals is to be able to experience fundamentally different kinds of consciousness, where different senses and considerations have different “gut-level” significance.