Feel What Its Like to Be Someone Else Paradox
Consider the expression: “I wish I could feel what its like to be Roger Penrose for 1 second”.
To feel exactly what its like to be Roger you would have to have no knowledge of what its like to be yourself so the experience could never be communicated. Clearly, in the strict sense the statement is a paradox.
The situation implied by the statement is that we can perceive the sensory input of Roger for 1 second and feel what its like to be him. Clearly we feel, and presumably Roger feels like the same person, with every new experience, so the experience of being like Roger is based on the sum history of Roger’s previous experiences, rather than current sensory input. In fact every sensory input slightly changes you or Roger.
Would it be possible to feel what it is like to be Roger by being half Roger and Half Me, or Both Roger and Me, somehow? The half and half case is clearly ridiculous and the fully both requires that no experiences or preferences can cancel each other out. So if I like peas and Roger doesn’t, somehow I would have to remain in the superposed state of both liking and disliking peas.
The feeling what its like to be someone else paradox is a useful though experiment to contemplate information transfer. It suggests two things: that information shared means elimination of difference and that communication between individuals is triangulated with reference to the things in the world around us. What are the differences between information exchange between two systems and between two systems with reference to a third.
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February 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am
What if it was like “Being John Malkovich?” You were yourself, but saw/felt what he sees/feels?
Exchange between two systems involves reciprocation. Exchange between two with reference to another involves reciprocation plus approximation.
What is the difference between those situations and exchange between three with reference to a fourth?
Or the difference between those two and one with reference to itself?
February 6th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Yes but to really feel like John Malkovich means not knowing what it feels like, or being able to feel like yourself.
There can never be 100% overlap, that is the paradox.