Ah, but Unknown, knowing it can be done in the abstract isn’t the same as seeing it done.
So, Paul: Do enough dust specks—which by hypothesis, do produce a brief moment of irritation, enough to notice for a moment, so at least one pain neuron is firing—add up to experiencing a brief itch on your arm that you have to scratch? Also, do enough cases of feeling your foot come down momentarily on a hard pebble, add up to a toe stub that hurts for a few seconds?
How about listening to loud music blasting from a car outside your window—would enough instances of that ever add up to one case of being forced to watch “Plan Nine from Outer Space” twice in a row?
And can you swear on a stack of copies of “The Origin of Species” that you would have given the same answers to all those questions, if I’d asked you before you’d ever heard of the Dust Specks Dilemma?
Ah, but Unknown, knowing it can be done in the abstract isn’t the same as seeing it done.
So, Paul: Do enough dust specks—which by hypothesis, do produce a brief moment of irritation, enough to notice for a moment, so at least one pain neuron is firing—add up to experiencing a brief itch on your arm that you have to scratch? Also, do enough cases of feeling your foot come down momentarily on a hard pebble, add up to a toe stub that hurts for a few seconds?
How about listening to loud music blasting from a car outside your window—would enough instances of that ever add up to one case of being forced to watch “Plan Nine from Outer Space” twice in a row?
And can you swear on a stack of copies of “The Origin of Species” that you would have given the same answers to all those questions, if I’d asked you before you’d ever heard of the Dust Specks Dilemma?