What did Mary know? A thought experiment about consciousness (2013)
&quot;Jackson’s thought-experiment about Mary challenges physicalism in the following way. Physicalists claim that physical science can fully explain consciousness. However, when Mary sees the red of the apple, says Jackson, she learns something new, despite having previously learnt all the physical facts about colour vision. Thus, argues Jackson, Mary has come to know a non-physical fact; so proving that not all knowledge is physical.&quot;<p>I can&#x27;t see how this result proves anything. Consider the analogous experiment of &quot;Mary learns to cycle by reading books&quot;. Surely she can learn all the physics behind cycling without truly knowing how to cycle, and one could similarly conclude that there is something beyond the physical mind behind this skill. Nevertheless, we can use reinforcement learning to teach an ANN to cycle, and that doesn&#x27;t mean our robot has acquired a metaphysical consciousness.<p>You can still interpret both results from a physicalists perspective as in &quot;some learnings require specific physical stimuli&quot;.