And there it gets stuck. No new conscious connection formed between, say, “apple” and “red”, and the learning agent is only looking for information in the conscious subgraph. The learning agent goes through a dozen false starts looking for something that isn’t there. Martha articulates the thought of having learned something, but has nothing to say about what that new knowledge might be, except that it’s something about the colors. This new knowledge is, somehow, ineffable to her.
Why do you state that Martha “has nothing to say” about her new knowledge? Here’s an alternate possibility: the color pathways in her brain will light up, and her mental agents will start processing color information. As part of this processing, new nodes will appear in the ‘conscious’ semantic network corresponding to the principal components in said information, i.e. the main colors (including red); these nodes will subsequently collapse with the existing nodes for color words. As in the OP, Martha has the feeling of having learned something, but she can confidently state that she has “learned what red looks like”.
This is in fact what happens when “extra senses” are added to the body by exploiting the adult brain’s plasticity, such as with a magnetic belt (giving an “orientation sense”) or by inserting small magnets under the skin.
Not only has she “learned what red looks like,” but she has a memory of the experience and can refer to it, which she will verbally express to herself as, “so, red experiences are like that.” And on the subvocalization of “that” her verbalizing agents will activate a chain that brings about the activation of that memory.
None of the larger points are affected by this; I just think it helps to get these details right.
Why do you state that Martha “has nothing to say” about her new knowledge? Here’s an alternate possibility: the color pathways in her brain will light up, and her mental agents will start processing color information. As part of this processing, new nodes will appear in the ‘conscious’ semantic network corresponding to the principal components in said information, i.e. the main colors (including red); these nodes will subsequently collapse with the existing nodes for color words. As in the OP, Martha has the feeling of having learned something, but she can confidently state that she has “learned what red looks like”.
This is in fact what happens when “extra senses” are added to the body by exploiting the adult brain’s plasticity, such as with a magnetic belt (giving an “orientation sense”) or by inserting small magnets under the skin.
Not only has she “learned what red looks like,” but she has a memory of the experience and can refer to it, which she will verbally express to herself as, “so, red experiences are like that.” And on the subvocalization of “that” her verbalizing agents will activate a chain that brings about the activation of that memory.
None of the larger points are affected by this; I just think it helps to get these details right.