Various thinkers try to show that the zombie does not exist because consciousness is either just brain wiring or an illusion, maybe both:
Canadian science journalist Dan Falk tells us, the philosopher’s zombie thought experiment, “flawed as it is,” demonstrates that physics alone can’t explain consciousness. Not that many physicists haven’t tried. But first, what is the philosopher’s zombie (sometimes called the p-zombie)?:
The experiment features an imagined creature exactly like you or me, but with a crucial ingredient – consciousness – missing. Though versions of the argument go back many decades, its current version was stated most explicitly by Chalmers. In his book The Conscious Mind (1996), he invites the reader to consider his zombie twin, a creature who is ‘molecule for molecule identical to me’ but who ‘lacks conscious experience entirely’.”
He does everything he is supposed to do but experiences nothing inside.
In step two, Chalmers argues that if you can conceive of the zombie, then zombies are possible. And finally, step three: if zombies are possible, then physics, by itself, isn’t up to the job of explaining minds. This last step is worth examining more closely. Physicalists argue that bits of matter, moving about in accordance with the laws of physics, explain everything, including the workings of the brain and, with it, the mind. Proponents of the zombie argument counter that this isn’t enough: they argue that we can have all of those bits of matter in motion, and yet not have consciousness.
DAN FALK, “THE PHILOSOPHER’S ZOMBIE” AT AEON (FEBRUARY 4, 2022)
Falk assembles a number of experts who dispute the idea that the zombie shows that consciousness is not strictly physical…
● Cosmologist Sean Carroll offers an example involving time travel and the question of whether the zombie is conceivable:
If you went back 10,000 years and explained to someone what a prime number is, and asked: ‘Is it conceivable to you that there’s a largest prime number?’ Well, they might say “yes”; as far as they can conceive, there could be a largest prime number. And then you can explain to them, no, there’s a very simple mathematical proof that there can’t be a largest prime number. And they go: “Oh, I was wrong – it’s not conceivable.”
DAN FALK, “THE PHILOSOPHER’S ZOMBIE” AT AEON (FEBRUARY 4, 2022)
But wait. The largest prime number is conceivable. It just can’t exist in an infinite series. Mathematician Gregory Chaitin, best known for Chaitin’s unknowable number, also talks about the smallest uninteresting number — which turns out not to exist, for reasons of logic. Note that both the unknowable number (which exists but can’t be known) and the smallest uninteresting number (which doesn’t exist) are quite conceivable. Dr. Carroll is not giving the human imagination nearly enough credit.
News, “The philosopher’s zombie still walks and physics can’t explain it” at Mind Matters News (February 8, 2022)
The others, at the link, are no better.
Takehome: The “zombie” argument does what it is supposed to do: Shows that consciousness, the motivating force in our lives, is not really a material thing.
You may also wish to read:
Neuroscientist Michael Graziano should meet the philosopher’s zombie. To understand consciousness, we need to establish what it is not before we create any more new theories. A p-zombie (a philosopher’s thought experiment) behaves exactly like a human being but has no first-person (subjective) experience. The meat robot violates no physical principles. Yet we KNOW we are not p-zombies. Think what that means. (Michael Egnor)
and
Neurosurgeon explains why you are not a zombie. Michael Egnor explains to podcaster Lucas Skrobot that our minds must necessarily transcend our materials, so we can’t be zombies. (Michael Egnor)