Re: q*****

Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Sun, 12 Dec 1999 14:07:03 -0800

At 09:54 PM 11/12/99 -0500, Dan wrote, after his customary insanely irritating:
>'What is your name?' 'Zeb Haradon.' 'IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME
>IS!!!':

>Your answer amounts to, "well, it would feel different if I were a zombie,
>that is, it wouldn't feel like anything at all!" but if you were a zombie,
>you would think/say exactly that! Sure, you can CLAIM that you have an
>inner life, but you may be decieved in exactly the same way a zombie would
>be deceived.

But this is just the auto-deconstruction of the very concept `zombie' that undoes the whole thought experiment. As people have noted for years, it's like proposing a universe exactly like ours where molecules bash against each other but there is no `heat'.

Damien Broderick (AND IT FUCKING WELL DOES MATTER WHAT MY NAME IS)