>The question being, why am I here experiencing it all? Why is it not just, well, "automated", without me here as an "observer"?
It's simple really: you have to observe to decide. Imagine not having any vision-qualia. How would you read? Your vision-qualia is the substrate from which your conscious mind makes decisions. You cannot have conscious decision making without qualia. Conscious experience is simply high level representations of information interfacing with your decision-making apparatus. Nothing more, nothing less.
The concept of p-zombies are inherently contradictory. P-zombies are by definition indistinguishable from a conscious entity through any test. Yet when I ask a p-zombie a million questions designed to get at its conception of its conscious experience, it responds in the exact same way as the conscious entity. Furthermore, all observations of its behavior prove to be equivalent to the conscious entity. So the p-zombie must contain the exact same information regarding "conscious experience" as the assumed conscious entity. Therefore, the two systems are information-equivalent.
What is the difference between these two supposed systems? They are information-equivalent, and yet you claim the conscious entity experiences something the p-zombie doesn't. But of course, by definition of experience, that occurrence must be able to shape your future behavior. This contradicts information-equivalence.
You might say: well the representation of that information is different in the p-zombie vs the conscious entity. This doesn't work either. Just like the universe has no privileged reference-frame, it has no privileged information representation either.
Therefore, either qualia is a meaningless concept, or it is purely dependent on information representation.
Furthermore, if you accept that our brains are a large part of what makes up our minds, then somehow our physical brains "interface" with the substrate of consciousness. Neuroscientists should be able to find this interface. Physicists should be able to probe this "consciousness substrate" using the same physical properties of matter that our brains do. We have found nothing of the sort. The only thing in our brains are bundles of neurons and neurotransmitters. Those of you that suppose metaphysical explanations for consciousness are just as guilty of "god of the gaps" as those who would look up at the stars and posit a god holding them in place. Don't be that person.
It's simple really: you have to observe to decide. Imagine not having any vision-qualia. How would you read? Your vision-qualia is the substrate from which your conscious mind makes decisions. You cannot have conscious decision making without qualia. Conscious experience is simply high level representations of information interfacing with your decision-making apparatus. Nothing more, nothing less.
The concept of p-zombies are inherently contradictory. P-zombies are by definition indistinguishable from a conscious entity through any test. Yet when I ask a p-zombie a million questions designed to get at its conception of its conscious experience, it responds in the exact same way as the conscious entity. Furthermore, all observations of its behavior prove to be equivalent to the conscious entity. So the p-zombie must contain the exact same information regarding "conscious experience" as the assumed conscious entity. Therefore, the two systems are information-equivalent.
What is the difference between these two supposed systems? They are information-equivalent, and yet you claim the conscious entity experiences something the p-zombie doesn't. But of course, by definition of experience, that occurrence must be able to shape your future behavior. This contradicts information-equivalence.
You might say: well the representation of that information is different in the p-zombie vs the conscious entity. This doesn't work either. Just like the universe has no privileged reference-frame, it has no privileged information representation either.
Therefore, either qualia is a meaningless concept, or it is purely dependent on information representation.
Furthermore, if you accept that our brains are a large part of what makes up our minds, then somehow our physical brains "interface" with the substrate of consciousness. Neuroscientists should be able to find this interface. Physicists should be able to probe this "consciousness substrate" using the same physical properties of matter that our brains do. We have found nothing of the sort. The only thing in our brains are bundles of neurons and neurotransmitters. Those of you that suppose metaphysical explanations for consciousness are just as guilty of "god of the gaps" as those who would look up at the stars and posit a god holding them in place. Don't be that person.
A relevant reddit comment of mine from a while ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/1o1yxm/the_menta...