[ExI] Zombies are logically inconsistent: a proof

[Jason Resch]

On Tue, May 16, 2023 at 11:56 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 16, 2023 at 9:33 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> *If we accept #2*, that zombies cannot think, believe, or know, then we
>> end up with zombies that can solve complex problems without thinking, and
>> zombies that can win at Jeopardy despite not knowing anything. This
>> thinking without thinking, and knowing without knowing, appears to be an
>> equally inconsistent notion.
>>
>
> And yet this is exactly what LLMs are allegedly doing, with their internal
> models used as evidence for how they accomplish this.
>
> You're going to need a lot more than "appears to be" for a proof, because
> to those who believe #2, there is no appearance of inconsistency here.
>

Note that the "appears" referred to the level of inconsistency in the
former argument, not the argument itself.

I have trouble conceiving of anything more convincing than zombies
violating the law of noncontradiction, which is implied by both options:

Def: Zombies are "¬conscious ^ behaviorally-equivalent"
Def: B is a behavior (e.g. believing, knowing, thinking, or having the
ability to write a book about consciousness) which implies consciousness

Option #1 → Zombies are "¬conscious" and are "B", but "B → consciousness",
thus zombies are "¬conscious ∧ conscious"
Option #2 → Zombies are "behaviorally-equivalent" and are "¬B", but
"behaviorally-equivalent → B", thus zombies are "¬B ∧ B"

Each option leads to a violation of the law of noncontradiction, since we
end up with a situation of "P and (not P)".

I guess the debate comes down to: does there exist any behavior "B" which
implies consciousness? E.g. is writing a book about consciousness, such as
Dennett's "Consciousness Explained" an example of "B"? Is this something
that people believe zombies are capable of?

Jason
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