Do you think there might be alternative or more effective ways to model human consciousness, or is the approach of using “qualia” the most promising one we currently have?
IMO the most useful is the description of the cognitive algorithms / cognitive capabilities involved in human-like consciousness. Like remembering events from long-term memory when appropriate, using working memory to do cognitive tasks, responsiveness to various emotions, emotional self-regulation, planning using various abstractions, use of various shallow decision-making heuristics, interpreting sense data into abstract representations, translating abstract representations back into words, attending to stimuli, internally regulating what you’re focusing on, etc.
Qualia can also be bundled with capabilities. For example, pain triggers the fight or flight response, it causes you to learn to avoid similar situations in the future, it causes you to focus on plans to avoid the pain, it filters what memories you’re primed to recall, etc.
IMO the most useful is the description of the cognitive algorithms / cognitive capabilities involved in human-like consciousness. Like remembering events from long-term memory when appropriate, using working memory to do cognitive tasks, responsiveness to various emotions, emotional self-regulation, planning using various abstractions, use of various shallow decision-making heuristics, interpreting sense data into abstract representations, translating abstract representations back into words, attending to stimuli, internally regulating what you’re focusing on, etc.
Qualia can also be bundled with capabilities. For example, pain triggers the fight or flight response, it causes you to learn to avoid similar situations in the future, it causes you to focus on plans to avoid the pain, it filters what memories you’re primed to recall, etc.