In my quest to escape from all those self-referential blogs about blogging and RSS feeds about what should be done with RSS, I've been taking a look at this blog, which contains hardly a reference to things technical, thus making it a hugely refreshing sight in the blogosphere.
They recently published this item about "qualia" (subjective sensations). As a former neuroscientist, I reckon they do a pretty good job despite their self-avowed amateur status. Though I don't buy their ideas on the possible evolutionary benefits of qualia, I really like their comments about qualia and art.
They were largely inspired by the work of VS Ramachandran. I agree that he's a fascinating guy to follow (I got my stint at The Economist 10 years ago after writing a test piece about some of Ramachandran's work.) But if there's anyone who's contributed even more to neuroscience than him, it's Daniel Dennett (who's a philosopher, not a scientist, but that doesn't seem to stop him ;-) and he reckons that qualia don't even exist.
So the debate goes on. Which is nice, because I'm rather enjoying it.
Posted by timo at July 6, 2003 11:50 PM | TrackBack