When I say 'I have subjective experience of little pink elephants,' I'm not describing an inner theater with little pink elephants made of 'qualia.' Instead, I'm using the concept of normal perception to describe what's going on in my perceptual system. I'm saying: given my perceptual state, what would have to be out there in the world for this to be normal perception? Answer: little pink elephants. But these 'elephants' are counterfactual, not made of spooky stuff.

definitionpending

Speaker

Geoffrey Hinton

Evidence Quote

“when I say I have the subjective experience of little little pink elephants it's not that there's an inner theater with little pink elephants in it made of funny stuff called qualia... they're made of counterfactual stuff in a perfectly normal world”

Source

Geoffrey Hinton - Two Paths to Intelligence— CSER Cambridge
Created: 8/12/2026, 5:56:09 PM

My Notes

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