Silly hypothesis: all reductionists are actually p-zombies. Lacking qualia, and generalizing from one example, we assume incorrectly that “qualia” must refer to something that our own brains do, and wind up constructing theories that try to explain qualia in terms of material processes.
That’s strictly speaking nonsense given the definition of P-zombies, since it’d be a detectable difference. But the thing you actually mean is interesting. We know it’s false due to all the specific things we know about the brain, but 50 years ago I might have taken it seriously.
Silly hypothesis: all reductionists are actually p-zombies. Lacking qualia, and generalizing from one example, we assume incorrectly that “qualia” must refer to something that our own brains do, and wind up constructing theories that try to explain qualia in terms of material processes.
That’s strictly speaking nonsense given the definition of P-zombies, since it’d be a detectable difference. But the thing you actually mean is interesting. We know it’s false due to all the specific things we know about the brain, but 50 years ago I might have taken it seriously.
I remember that being proposed seriously by a commenter during the Sequences.