That’s why I said “something similar to”, and “both explanations seem reasonably viable”. I can’t rule out either of them, and it’s not possible (even in principle) to distinguish them after the fact. Was there short-term memory but no memory of consciousness because there was no consciousness to remember (due to the effects of the drug known to cause loss of consciousness), or was there both consciousness and short-term memory but the drug prevented those from leaving any traces some minutes later?
I certainly don’t claim to know what consciousness is or how it works. I would by default expect that a true p-zombie that for some reason became conscious would still remember having thoughts and experiences from the time period in which they had been a p-zombie, but it doesn’t seem logically inconsistent that they might not.
That’s why I said “something similar to”, and “both explanations seem reasonably viable”. I can’t rule out either of them, and it’s not possible (even in principle) to distinguish them after the fact. Was there short-term memory but no memory of consciousness because there was no consciousness to remember (due to the effects of the drug known to cause loss of consciousness), or was there both consciousness and short-term memory but the drug prevented those from leaving any traces some minutes later?
I certainly don’t claim to know what consciousness is or how it works. I would by default expect that a true p-zombie that for some reason became conscious would still remember having thoughts and experiences from the time period in which they had been a p-zombie, but it doesn’t seem logically inconsistent that they might not.