Max Tegmark

Why are you against torture?

If it's just about, you know, these particles moving this way rather than that way,

And there is no such thing as subjective experience.

What's wrong with torture?

I mean, do you have a good comeback to that?

And if someone tells me, well, you know, it's just an illusion, consciousness, whatever, you know, I would like to invite them to next time they're having surgery to do it without anesthesia.

Like what is anesthesia really doing?

You can have a local anesthesia when you're awake.

I had that when they fixed my shoulder.

It was super entertaining.

What was it that it did?

It just removed my subjective experience of pain.

It didn't change anything about what was actually happening in my shoulder, right?

So if someone says that's all bullshit, skip the anesthesia is my advice.

This is incredibly central.

It is fundamental because what we feel is so fundamental is suffering and joy and pleasure and meaning and...

Those are all subjective experiences there.

Those are the elephant in the room.

That's what makes life worth living, and that's what can make it horrible if it's just a bunch of suffering.

So let's not make the mistake of saying that that's all bullshit.