It's funny because the author's idea was to discredit the notion altogether, so it's relevant because it failed to do that.
The core of Mary's adventures is a false dicotomy: that matter is the only component of physical reality. But processes, structure and energy flow are as real as matter. Actually, at a very small scale, matter seems to be exactly that.
So as usual with all these dualism "enigmas", the only problem is starting from an old perspective that doesn't play well with current knowledge.
Consciousness seems to be a complex physical process seen from inside itself. There's no mistery or toughness in that, except that we can't compare it with anything else.
We can't use the inside and ouside outlooks at the same time. But Wittgenstein already stated that more than a century ago.
But... none of this makes thought experiments any less helpful or valid. If anything, the fact that Schrodinger's cat achieved the opposite goal implies that it touched on hidden fundamentals in quantum theory.
The core of Mary's adventures is a false dicotomy: that matter is the only component of physical reality. But processes, structure and energy flow are as real as matter. Actually, at a very small scale, matter seems to be exactly that.
So as usual with all these dualism "enigmas", the only problem is starting from an old perspective that doesn't play well with current knowledge.
Consciousness seems to be a complex physical process seen from inside itself. There's no mistery or toughness in that, except that we can't compare it with anything else.
We can't use the inside and ouside outlooks at the same time. But Wittgenstein already stated that more than a century ago.