IS THE WORLD ONLY PHYSICAL? MARYS ROOM

Do you ever think about how we perceive the world? We touch, we see, we smell, we hear and we think. It seems physical, like being alive. But is it all physical, or is it something more?

I want to talk about a thought experiment today. It's called Mary's Room. The tale goes like this:
Mary lives in a black-white world. She never sees colour, and she never comes across any reflective surface, so she never comes across any colour, (for the sake of the experiment we ignore her skin colour etc.) she only sees black and white. But here is the catch:

Mary is an expert in colour.

She knows every single thing that happens in a humans body when it sees colour. She knows how the eyes takes it, she knows how our brain works to perceive it, she knows all about the different cones and physical responses- she knows every physical and anatomical part of seeing a colour.

One day, her world malfunctions and she comes across an image of a red apple in her computer. A bright red apple that she has never seen before. And here is the question:

Did she learned anything new by seeing the colour?

We explain everything by anatomy. Love is because of hormones, seeing is because of our eyes. But is actually experiencing it a totally different information? Is a concious perception totally different from the knowledge of biological systems and how they work?
Think of a doctor. He knows every on-book information about having a heart attack. But if you thought yes to our question about Mary, this means that the doctor will never know everything about this disease without actually experiencing it. So, if he never has a heart attack, he will never have enough information on the subject.

This thought experiment and alike questions are still being discussed today. Some believe that there are non-physical properties and attainable knowledge that can be discovered only through conscious experience. This means that not every information is physical information. This also means that we can't ever explain the world with only logic.
I was always one to believe everything has a scientific explanation. Every feeling, every thought, ever action. I believed that we can always explain it with logic, with science. But same as the majority of people, my first instict was to believe that Mary will never know about colour without experiencing it for herself. This contradicts everything that I base my logic to. If it can be explained, experience shouldn't change a thing.

But does it?

What do you think? Do you think that there are always things that physical information can't ever explain, or do you believe that logical explanation would stimulate the same reaction as experiencing it?

Let me know about it in the comments!!

If you are interested in the subject, check out Ted-ed's video on this thought experiment to get more information here.

If you have any more suggestions for my next post or things you want to learn about the topics I cover, let me know! Write me from here or dm me from my insta: @lattecaramelblog . I would love to write about them! :)

xoxo