Episode 10.6

Alan starts, suddenly fully awake. Has he nodded off and thus been replaced by a pod-grown simulacrum of himself, apparently therefore unable to experience qualia, the phenomenal character of experiences? Looking across Spaceport, he sees the rocket and, reassuringly, can judge it – directly and visually – to be its familiar red colour. Since he hasn’t checked the lighting conditions, he should really judge that it looks red or seems red. Seeming red! Phew! But then again, wouldn’t even a correctly grown pod-fiend be able to see and think all that? 

He realises that, although he’s always gone along with the crowd like a numpty, he’s never really understood any of this talk of ‘qualia’.