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Full Idea
If a conscious machine were increased in size, one might enter it like a mill, but we should only see the parts impinging on one another; we should not see anything which would explain a perception.
Gist of Idea
Increase a conscious machine to the size of a mill - you still won't see perceptions in it
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Monadology [1716], §17)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.181
A Reaction
A wonderful image for capturing a widely held intuition. It seems to motivate Colin McGinn's 'Mysterianism'. The trouble is Leibniz didn't think big/small enough. Down at the level of molecules it might become obvious what a perception is. 'Might'.
Related Idea
Idea 7522 A full neural account of qualia will give new epistemic access to them, beyond private experience [Churchlands]
| 2109 | Increase a conscious machine to the size of a mill - you still won't see perceptions in it [Leibniz] |
| 7392 | If a lion could talk, it would be nothing like other lions [Dennett on Wittgenstein] |
| 4161 | If a lion could talk, we could not understand him [Wittgenstein] |
| 7391 | We can know a lot of what it is like to be a bat, and nothing important is unknown [Dennett] |
| 7522 | A full neural account of qualia will give new epistemic access to them, beyond private experience [Churchlands] |
| 3148 | Dualist privacy is seen as too deep for even telepathy to reach [Rey] |
| 5341 | Only you can have your subjective experiences because only you are hooked up to your nervous system [Flanagan] |
| 2403 | Nothing in physics even suggests consciousness [Chalmers] |
| 5210 | We could know what a lion thinks by mapping both its brain patterns and its experiences [Douglas,A] |