Mary was brilliant—

so sharp and so smart.

And her knowledge of minds

was state of the art.

In particular,

Mary knew all about light

And color and thinking,

and all about sight.

She knew all of the waves

and the particles too

There was only one limit

to what Mary knew.

You see Mary grew up

and lived in a room

That was all black and white,

(and gray, let’s assume).

And while Mary knew whatever

one could read in a book

Her knowledge seemed lacking

without taking a look

She had never seen Red

though she knew all about it

Without leaving her room,

she had reason to doubt it.

One day Mary escaped

to the world full of color.

Was anything new

learned by Mary the scholar?

She discovered why sunsets

strike us with awe.

And uncovered the limits

of each physical law.

Some people say

Mary’s example can show,

That without experiences,

you just can’t know!

Consider another strange sort

you might find,

who like Mary was born

with a remarkable mind.

But unlike Mary, our new friend,

let’s call him Fred,

saw more colors than we can,

like infrared.

To Fred we’re like Mary,

missing out on some stuff.

Which shows that knowing about thinking

just isn’t enough

There’s gotta be more

to what happens in minds

Then the physical parts

that make up humankind.

Qualia’s the word

that we use to describe this

And the ultraviolet wonder

that each of our eyes miss.