this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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philosophy
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Other philosophy communities have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. [ x ]
"I thunk it so I dunk it." - Descartes
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Yes there is no way to observe that something else has a conscious thought, but if we were to assume other highly complex possess similar means of consciousness as us, then we can look at outer phenomena to confirm it.
A philosophical zombie with my exact state but somehow no consciousness would be dead within the evening. They would have woken up this morning, completely failed to take any medication because they have no memory of medication (memory IS consciousness) no memory of glasses, no memory of what food is like in 2025... They would die. They would effectively be an infant.
To be agential in our universe is to be conscious. There is no distinction. The confusion comes when trying to separate agentiality from consciousness. A human has self diagnostic models, a mix of internal and external stimuli, and a whole host of chemical reactions that make up your consciousness. To say a P Zombie is not conscious is to say they would not receive an emotional improvement from my anti depressants in the morning. Emotion is consciousness.
The act of self modeling IS consciousness. There isn't anything else going on. It "feels" that way because "feeling" that way is *how" we self model. Consciousness isn't a thing its the sum total of all of your self modeling reified into a single experience to give you agency, which grants you an advantage in getting your fuck on.
Hell, I am not even sure a p zombie in my form could "wake up" in the morning. Waking up is an entirely conscious process...