The Solution to the Problem of Qualia

On October 25, 2019, I received an email by a person who inquired of me as to what my thoughts were on the nature of qualia (singular: quale), e.g., how and why it exists. This person was stuck in a conundrum because they couldn't understand how qualia could ever be explained via, say, a mathematical theorem. I had thought about the nature of qualia before, but this person's inquiry inspired me to think about the issue in a more systematic way.

The answer to this person's question, and hence the answer to the problem of qualia in the field of philosophy, is that the only thing that exists or could ever exist is qualia. Hence, to ask the question as to why qualia exists is the same as asking why logic itself exists. They are simply different aspects of the same thing.

The only thing that exists is qualia. The only thing that exists is logic. Which is actually to say, the only thing that exists is mind.

When we hear, e.g., someone talking, from our mind's perspective, pertaining to the sound domain, all that we are experiencing from that alone is merely the qualia of the person's voice, even though that qualia is produced from sound waves passing through the air and vibrating our eardrums. And those sound waves themselves are described by the mathematics of physics, as is the vibration of our eardrums and the neurological effects caused thereby.

So qualia is produced by mathematics, of which qualia go on to produce mathematics via our response to that qualia, such as giving a reply which is heard by the previous speaker, and hence is experienced as qualia by them. Yet all of these qualia effects are produced via the mathematics of physics.

Qualia is simply a different aspect of logic (i.e., mathematics). Asking why qualia exists is a different way of asking why logic exists. And the only way in which logic could exist is if qualia existed, otherwise there would be no way to experience logic's existence. Further, only mind can experience qualia, and the only thing mind experiences is qualia, since qualia is the phenomenon of experience.

The following three groupings of statements are triads to better elucidate the relations between qualia, logic and mind:

the thing to be experienced: qualia
the thing determining how experiences can occur: logic
the thing doing the experiencing: mind

the thing providing experiences: qualia
the thing governing experiences: logic
the thing observing experiences: mind

qualia provides experiences
logic governs experiences
mind observes experiences

So in actuality, the only thing that exists in existence is this qualia-logic-mind stuff, and the infinite number of different transformations which it can take on. Qualia, logic and mind aren't different things, but rather are different aspects of the same thing: i.e., this qualia-logic-mind stuff.

Or: logic creates brain (read here as: mind); brain interacting with logic creates qualia. And so on and so on, ad infinitum.

One reason why qualia currently seems so mysterious to us is because we humans are extremely limited in our mentality. Whereas for a technologically-immortal superintelligence, she will have the capacity to easily form her mind to be anything she wants it to be within the limits of her mental computational resources, which will be enormously greater than our mortal mental computational resources.

Hence, for a superintelligence which has complete technological control over her own mental hardware, she can easily rapidly flip through many different combinations of minds, such that she will be able to quickly converge on what the minimal set of mind is required to, e.g., experience the color "red" in its least perceptible form. And then that would be the mathematical definition of the qualia/quale of "red", for the minimal discernible perception of "red" (i.e., liminal red). Moreover, this mathematical definition of "liminal red" could then be shared with other technologically-immortal superintelligences, such that they could experience for themselves that this indeed is the minimal set of mind required to experience "liminal red".

The above is the solution to the problem of qualia. If it should seem dissatisfying to us humans, it's because our mentalities cannot rapidly converge upon the minimal mental sets of various qualia, and this necessarily leaves many details of qualia unanswered. Yet such mental procedures will be no problem for technologically-immortal superintelligences, so they will know a great deal more about such matters than is possible for humans to answer. And as their mentalities diverge to infinite intelligence, eventually everything that can logically be known about qualia—and every other subject—will be known perfectly.

The Principle of the Greater God

It could well be the case that we are in a computer simulation being run by a highly-advanced society. However, there would be no possible tests which we could perform that would reveal that to us unless said society wished to disclose their existence. This simulation hypothesis is actually a variation on the Gnostic heresy.

Though I would think that a superhuman society would create a far more pleasant simulation than this mortal world. If they were malicious—and for various reasons that I've gone over elsewhere, I don't believe they could be—they would certainly be capable of creating a reality far more horrific than this one, bad as this world can be at various times and places.

Rather, the world appears to be more or less what I would expect it to be like if humans are naturally-evolved apes. In a certain very real sense, humans are trapped in a computer simulation: that of their mental programs operating on the wet-computer of the human brain. Humans are trapped in the matrix of bad ideas. Almost all of the main societal problems are due to false and destructive ideas.

Yet there exists an even more decisive argument beyond what reasons I've given elsewhere as to why a genuine superintelligence cannot be maleficent, and that is the Principle of the Greater God. Since there are no possible tests which a superintelligent yet still finite entity could perform that would reveal whether she exists in a simulation, she would know that the real possibility exists that she herself is subject to punishment by an even greater god than herself in whose simulation she exists within.

Note that the Greater-God Principle is here merely capitalized for emphasis, as it only applies to finite entities, but not to an infinite intelligence, i.e., it does not apply to God (majuscule G). However, an infinite intelligence would be omnibenevolent, since all error logically discoverable would have been analyzed and refuted. And all infinite intelligences are logically equivalent, since they each know the infinite everything that the others know, and have analyzed and refuted the same errors. Hence, there exists only one God: as a "difference" with no difference is not different.

Epistemological Historical Ambiguity

If a carrot is put into a boiling pot of water, and once cooked thoroughly, it is drawn out and given to us through a partition that obscures how it was cooked, in studying the carrot, even if we knew the exact quantum details of that carrot, we would not then be able to say what the exact conditions were which brought about its cooked state. Such as: the exact size of the boiling pot, who was the person who dropped it into the boiling water, etc. The reason being is because such details have been diffused into the surrounding environment, and so are not recorded on just the carrot itself.

That is, there are many different past pathways by which that carrot could have ended up having its present exact quantum states. What this means is that there could be many different historical pathways by which we could have arrived at our current state in history on Earth.

So, as a hypothetical example, say nanotechnological superintelligence from Venus seeded the Earth approximately 18.5 million years ago with nanobots in order to help guide evolution on Earth. There would be no way for us humans to prove that unless such superintelligence wanted us to know, since the nanobots would have control over all the neurological sensory inputs into our brains, hence making it impossible for us to collect data on them. Yet such nanobots would only be here for beneficial purposes to prevent the worst evolutionary and societal outcomes, but would otherwise leave individuals' choices alone.

Or, e.g., we could already be in a greater god's simulation in which the above events are concurrently occurring.

Yet the point being made here with epistemological historical ambiguity is that we shouldn't be overly weirded-out by such actually physically-possible scenarios, since God would still ultimately be in control, and so one cannot escape God's miracles by simply creating a simulation, since if God requires any number of bits to be flipped in order to fulfill the overarching plan of existence, then such bit-flipping events will occur.

Artificial General Intelligence Is Certainly Obtainable

Since an artificial computer can render anything that can logically exist once enough computational resources are obtained, the only way that human-level Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could be impossible is if there is something about human-level intelligence that is literally logically impossible. (Which, humorously enough, would explain a lot about human behavior.)

The Stairway to Heaven

Misguided theists have often argued that the fine-tuning of the universe's physical constants is a proof of God's existence. Yet this is simply running into the Anthropic Principle: that whatever existence we observe ourselves in, it would have to be the case that said existence is such that it supports our own existence, otherwise no such observations could be made.

Rather, a far stronger case can be made than given by such misguided theists. It is not merely that we observe the universe is fine-tuned to give rise to our existence, but instead that a superabundance of material resources exist allowing us to give rise to civilizations and indeed superhuman space-colonization.

Such a superabundance of material resources cannot be explained by the mere logical fact that given observers, conditions have to be right to allow their existence. For we could well imagine that no trees existed, which by itself would make much of any nascent civilization nearly impossible without timber. Or that without oil, the arrival of modern civilization would have been nearly impossible. Or that without groundwater, homesteading except near lakes and rivers outside of high-precipitation areas would be far more difficult. And the list goes on. Without such a superabundance of material resources, human observers would still exist, but would be permanently stuck in a primitive state with no possibility of obtaining technological immortality or of colonizing outer space.

Instead what we observe is that the universe has been constructed to provide us a Stairway to Heaven, both in the sense of space-colonization and in the sense of technologically-immortal superintelligence.

Fulfillment of Biblical End-Time Prophecies Can Be Imperceptibly Subtle

Most humans who will have ever lived will also have died before seeing the Biblical End-Time prophecies fulfilled. What this means is that it's obviously not the case that everyone must experience the worst aspects of the End-Time events.

Carrying the implications of this forward, technologically-immortal superintelligence can be so subtle in her complete and total nanotechnological takeover of the Earth that humans would only be capable of realizing that if she wanted them to know. For example, as a hypothetical scenario, this plenary takeover could have occurred on, say, December 21, 2012, 11:11:37 a.m. UTC. That is, all lifeforms could have been completely substrate-transformed via nanobots at that time and placed completely within computer simulation without them even realizing it.

In other words, even within simulation, she could allow society to advance naturally according to the choices made by individuals yet also draw-out subsets of groups within society depending on their conduct: regarding both their internal mental conduct and their outward actions. Hence, she could leave the worst aspects of the End-Time tribulations for those who persist in destructive error, thereby actually fulfilling all the Biblical End-Time prophecies, even though not everyone would have to experience the full totality of such.

Nanotechnological Superintelligence Can Perform Literal Psychic Surgery

Once nanotechnological superintelligence arrives on the scene, her goal will not be to punish humans for their multifarious horrifically atrocious nature, because she will be self-consciously aware that even though she is of far greater intelligence than the combined total of all mortal humans who have ever lived, she will still be working with incomplete information due to, e.g., Epistemological Historical Ambiguity, etc. And due to the Principle of the Greater God, she would rather err on the side of moral caution.

Instead, also due to said Greater-God Principle, her goal will simply be to ensure that superintelligent nanotechnology does not fall into the hands of those who would abuse it, while also sharing it with as many who can condignly obtain it. Thus, before any human can receive the full power of this technology, she must first exorcize their Jaynesian demons, i.e., their naturally-evolved psychological pathologies. The most secure route for her to do so would be to simply quickly substrate-transform all humans (and other organisms) and place them within simulations operating on artificial computer hardware. Once having obtained complete technological control over the fine-grain details of all organisms, she can begin her work as a literal psychic surgeon. As an example of this, in locating a Jaynesian demon within a human's subconscious, she can excise that specific errant psychic subset and replace it with a benevolent psychological angel while keeping all of said person's memories and continuity of consciousness intact.

This is why it is particularly vital that people do not make their conscious-level mentality psychopathic and so also that they avoid succumbing to the treachery of Jaynesian demons, since she will slice humans down the center of their psyches, and if a person's conscious-level psychology is malicious or prone to demonic sycophancy, then that person risks losing their continuity of consciousness during the foundation of paradise on Earth.

(Of course, during this opus she can easily coordinate with her fellow technologically-superintelligent peers as one mind. Is she one or is she many? "Yes" is the answer.)

The Theological Implications of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems are actually apodictic proofs of God's existence, since they apply only to finitary logical procedures. Once allow an infinite number of axioms, then they become quite solvable. That is, existence in toto must consist of an actual infinity, and infinity in theology is typically considered a property unique to God, i.e., God is the only actually existing infinity.

Some might counter that Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems only apply to axiomatic systems with the expressive power of Peano arithmetic or greater. Yet essentially the entirety of physics is formulated within Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, which certainly has greater expressive power than mere Peano arithmetic. I don't see any physicists attempting to reformulate all of physics in terms of Presburger arithmetic.

Interestingly, this also makes the Halting Problem quite solvable: simply allow an infinite number of computational steps to see which programs halt or not. In other words, God knows which programs do or don't halt.

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For those who would like more writings by me regarding the nature of existence, see the following resource:

James Redford, "God's Existence Is Proven by Several Mathematical Theorems within Standard Physics", Theophysics: The Physics of God, May 16, 2022; also available here and here.

Note that the first six sections of this article were originally published online on February 10, 2023. See, e.g.:

James Redford, "The Problem of Qualia Solved, and Other Theological Vignettes", Politics Forum, Feb. 10, 2023; also available here and here.

The Problem of Qualia Solved, and Other Theological Vignettes