@Amoeba_Girl even better news, it requires no references outside of 90- and 75-year-old results in theoretical computer science! nobody since Rice has made any progress on this important problem.

@BigMuffN69 Thomas Metzinger (“Being No-One: The Self-Model Theory of Subjectivity”, 2004) also argues representational capacity is required for consciousness, but in a much more principled manner and with many examples, at length. I notice they don’t reference that book, or indeed any book that’s younger than 75 years old. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@maol I’ve seen it said (and now can’t find the link for reference) that whether or not the multiple on fish “utility” relative to human “utility” is small, a strict policy of fish maximalism adopted in 1900 would have produced better environmental outcomes for humanity than the course history actually did take. So, score that one for the vegans.

@lagrangeinterpolator can you understand without generalizing? arguably yes. can you generalize without understanding? also, arguably yes. how else can a mathematical theory of physics give “right answers” in novel physical circumstances?

you could say, I suppose, that it’s the humans doing the calculations that are doing the generalization but one can do the calculations without understanding them.