> At some point if you live in society, it's useful to build a virtual machine that describes what your neighbour feels when you punch him.
This is where the argument falls down, for me. Why would this ever happen if your neighbour wasn't feeling things to begin with? Which, considering you're probably the same species as your neighbour, suggests you also feel things.
Nothing is explained. We just have a little story that makes us stop asking questions. A thought-terminating cliché.
I had the same thought. I was thinking perhaps its like language where at one point no one knew any common words but nonetheless formed a common understanding.
But Im not sure that works here. Besides I still dont see how feeling is necessary to accomplish this goal. Youd have to merely teach a robot to emit some unique symbol which another robot interprets as "that hurt".
And pain/empathy is just one thing. Theres a lot more to conscious experience. Seeing/hearing/feeling good/bad, etc
This is where the argument falls down, for me. Why would this ever happen if your neighbour wasn't feeling things to begin with? Which, considering you're probably the same species as your neighbour, suggests you also feel things.
Nothing is explained. We just have a little story that makes us stop asking questions. A thought-terminating cliché.