A proof that p-zombies are logically incoherent.

[sphenisc]

When I drive along a familiar route, I can navigate it almost nonconsciously, while my mind is pondering something else. There are virtually no qualia associated with that trip. Yet clearly I experienced it, or I would not have taken the correct route.

I realize I'm picking nits here, but I don't think we should equate experience with conscious qualia.

~~ Paul

I think it would be more constructive to propose a new word to describe the limited 'experience' associated with qualia. Perhaps to 'qualate'?

I also think we need a word for a zombie who things it has quale when it does really have a quale at all, this should be called a Cheney.

 

[Belz...]

We do. Because, we are capable of abstractual thought. This affects us in many ways.

Ask a p-zombie if they are conscious, they will respond, "Yes." Ask them why. If they do not possess consciousness, then they cannot describe it to you, because they do not possess the qualia of conscious sensations.

They will not be able to speak in metaphors, such as, "It's like..." because they have no qualia; they have no sense of what something is "like".

Okay... so why don't YOU tell me:

1 - Are you conscious ?
2 - Why ?

And then tell me if you couldn't program a p-zombie to tell you just that.

 

[Belz...]

I don't believe our physical bodies completely follow physical laws*. There is an input from the self which guides much of our behaviour.

In which case something which is absolutely physically identical to us would not behave as we do. Indeed it would be a corpse. Thus a p-zombie would be nomonologically (physically) impossible.

Well, as long as we assume the non-physical secret ingredient, you'd be right. However, we have no reason to believe that such a thing exists; unless you can provide me with a few pointers...

 

[drkitten]

Just admit that "blind" is used as a metaphor and move on.

Except that it isn't, even by the definition you just posted. The people who exhibit "blindsight" would fail the Snellen test in the appropriate section of their vision.