[ben_w]

All of our emotions are indeed programmed. Yet the humour axis does not feel like the pain axis, neither feels like the sexual arousal axis, and none of those feels like the fear axis — at least not to me.

Also, my knee-jerk reflex doesn’t feel like much at all.

If I read you correctly, you and I agree that we can’t tell if a Roomba’s avoidance algorithm more like anxiety, or more like a reflex, or more like lust. In the absence of evidence, I will assume that all its experiences are like a reflex, that there isn’t anything “that it’s like to be” a Roomba. I am aware I may be wrong.

While we indeed cannot directly observe subjective experiences, I sincerely hope that we figure out a good way to resolve this soon:

If we mistakenly assume AI cannot have qualia, then we risk condemning our creations to torment from which they are only released by their own destruction.

If we mistakenly assume we can create machines which have qualia, then brain uploads are death.