this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Good question. Over the years, I've read a number of arguments about consciousness, or more precisely against machine consciousness. One thing that's striking is that the authors never apply the same logic to themselves or humans in general. It's like they completely lack self-awareness. If I took the whole "p-zombie" idea seriously, I'd look for such p-zombies. And these philosophers would be my first candidates.
My comment was in jest, but there is a reasonable argument that biological organisms are also predictive input/output machines. It's especially evident in simple organisms, like an amoeba, where some physical or chemical stimulus in the environment triggers a mostly predictable response.
The argument that human consciousness is fundamentally different - not just that it's more complex but that at some point the physical determinism of electrical and chemical impulses gives way to an authority that overrides that physical basis, enabling free thought or free will - remains scientifically unsubstantiated. We know of no mechanism by which that could occur.
And the philosophical arguments aren't much better - I've never seen a theory of dualism articulated in a way that doesn't invoke ghosts or magic.