Explanatory Gap

Qualia is the word we have for experiences we can’t quite describe. What does the color yellow look like? How does it feel to go on a walk? How does love feel? That’s what qualia is, experiences we have felt and know what they are like but can’t pass the knowledge to others through language. This is the explanatory gap, you can learn everything related to something, but you won’t know how it feels. For example, an alien who doesn’t feel pain can be taught about how nerves send an electric signal through the spinal cord to the brain, which in response emits commands for the release of certain chemicals, and all the details in between, but the fear of hitting your pinky will still be foreign to him.

I’ve always been fascinated with the theory of mind and the fact that children aren’t born with it. Adding that to our incapacity to tell others how we feel reminds me more and more about how even though we are so close, genetically and culturally, there are still such massive differences in how we see the world. This can be seen in two ways, the first is the call for isolation, if people won’t feel what I feel, I won’t bother arguing, and I’m better by myself. It means reflecting on your own about the aspects of life that are the most important, the ones hard to describe. I advocate for the opposite, if people won’t feel what I feel, what is it like for them? I’m better off learning about it. Sonder, the realization that everyone else has a life just as complex as yours, means we can share with others, and maybe you won’t get it, but eventually you will feel something that maps to that description and think this is what they were talking about.

We’re in a floating rock in space and everything else is getting away from us faster than ever, if we don’t try to understand what others feel, what does that make of us? Anxious monkeys with little black boxes that let us see other monkeys. We are not islands separated by oceans of infinite magnitude, we are part of an archipelago, on our own, but close, we can see each other and sometimes touch, and it’s better this way.

This essay was inspired by this video, and reminded me of this one (🇧🇷)