[ExI] Zombie glutamate

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 12:22 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I don't need a proof to convince myself I'm conscious because I have
> something much better than proof, direct experience.
>

### This way goes solipsism. If you are not a solipsist, you believe that
there is a world out there, with trees, animals and other objects that have
an existence independent of you. Their existence and properties are
inferred from sensory data, memories and inbuilt cognitive hardware that
over your life build a more or less coherent model, which also includes a
model of yourself. If you are conscious, and some of the objects say they
are conscious, and you know their brains are similar to what your model of
yourself is, then this information is sufficient to conclude that they are
conscious, just as knowing that the Moon is a piece of rock is sufficient
to know that it has hidden side, even if you never directly observe it.

To say that consciousness of some of these objects in your world model is
inherently unknowable is solipsistic - you demand special proof where the
usual coherent model of the world should be sufficient.

Rafał
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