Inverted Spectrum Arguments
Overview
Imagine two people who are functionally identical, behaving the same, and processing colors identically (functionally), but whose qualia are inverted (e.g., your red is my green). There's a difference in experience without a difference in functional role, which means qualia aren't fully determined by computational states.
Responses
This situation might be conceivable in some other universe with different physical laws but not actually true in this universe, where physical laws define CF as the condition for consciousness. Where CF is being implemented, there will always be a relevant conscious experience of exactly that type. In other words, the pure philosophical trope of inverted spectrums can never happen in our universe.
Further reading
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2025). Inverted Qualia