Knowledge Tree
Relations (1)
cross_type 2.81 — strongly supporting 6 facts
Daniel Dennett is the creator and primary analyst of the 'RoboMary' thought experiment, as evidenced by his development of the scenario in [1] and [2], and his subsequent philosophical arguments regarding materialism and qualia in [3], [4], [5], and [6].
Facts (6)
Sources
What is hard about the “hard problem of consciousness”? philosophy.stackexchange.com 6 facts
quoteDaniel Dennett states: "Robots don’t have color experiences! Robots don’t have qualia. This scenario isn’t remotely on the same topic as the story of Mary the color scientist."
claimDaniel Dennett argues that asserting the impossibility of a RoboMary is not an argument for the falsity of materialism, but rather an assumption of it.
claimDaniel Dennett argues that critics who claim the 'RoboMary' thought experiment leaves something unexplained must specify what that is without assuming qualia are non-physical.
claimDaniel Dennett's 'RoboMary' thought experiment features a conscious, self-aware robot that possesses complete knowledge of its own circuitry and programming, along with the ability to make targeted changes to its internal state.
accountIn Daniel Dennett's 'RoboMary' thought experiment, the robot RoboMary is equipped with monochrome cameras but uses her knowledge of color vision to calculate how color cameras would record a scene, deduce the resulting changes to her neural circuitry, and manually adjust her internal state to match what it would be if she had color cameras.
claimDaniel Dennett's 'RoboMary' story is not intended to argue that Mary herself would be able to perform the physical changes described in the thought experiment.