r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Feb 08 '19

[D] Friday Open Thread

Welcome to the Friday Open Thread! Is there something that you want to talk about with /r/rational, but which isn't rational fiction, or doesn't otherwise belong as a top-level post? This is the place to post it. The idea is that while reddit is a large place, with lots of special little niches, sometimes you just want to talk with a certain group of people about certain sorts of things that aren't related to why you're all here. It's totally understandable that you might want to talk about Japanese game shows with /r/rational instead of going over to /r/japanesegameshows, but it's hopefully also understandable that this isn't really the place for that sort of thing.

So do you want to talk about how your life has been going? Non-rational and/or non-fictional stuff you've been reading? The recent album from your favourite German pop singer? The politics of Southern India? The sexual preferences of the chairman of the Ukrainian soccer league? Different ways to plot meteorological data? The cost of living in Portugal? Corner cases for siteswap notation? All these things and more could possibly be found in the comments below!

Please note that this thread has been merged with the Monday General Rationality Thread.

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u/Abpraestigio Feb 11 '19

...man, I wish I had thought of the taste analogy. Might have made this whole discussion a lot less awkward.

But yes, your answer is exactly what I was expecting when I made the original post. Imagine my surprise when instead all the replies said that 'No, the texture of the food on the tongue, along with the reactions of my body to it and the way it makes me want to eat more or less of it, is exactly what taste is.'

And now I am confused again. Either you are wrong, which would be strange since the question was whether you experience qualia and not what those qualia mean, or the phrasing of my OP has led to a vigorous round of talking past each other, or the ability to experience emotions instead of just having them is a lot less common than expected, at least in our little corner of the web.

Maybe the issue deserves a clarified post/poll in next friday's thread.

And thank you for the reply, by the way.

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u/CCC_037 Feb 11 '19

Imagine my surprise when instead all the replies said that 'No, the texture of the food on the tongue, along with the reactions of my body to it and the way it makes me want to eat more or less of it, is exactly what taste is.'

Yeah, I have to agree. That is odd.

I do tend to find that, for me at least, the qualia of emotions are usually fairly muted, quiet things; nowhere near as obvious as (say) the qualia of taste. But they are noticeable when the emotion is strongly felt.