Intro to Zombie Studies

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by wolf

You mean like Liberals?

I resemble that remark!
(how old does a joke have to be before it's considered a zombie?)

I accept Liberal with a capital L may mean something different in the States.
But I'm just registering my disapproval anyway, because I'm on your end of the world team.

I figure I'll be the one who has the love of my life zombified and compromises the group by maintaining he's not dangerous and then dies messily, proving he is.

Still, worth it to meet the love of my life I guess.

[ZenGum]

I swear this is true.

My PhD Thesis is about zombies.

Absolutely really utterly true!

The title is :

Conceivability Arguments Against Physicalism,
..........................Or ,
How to Slay Zombies and Banish Spectres.


In this context, "zombie" is a short expression for "non-conscious microphysical duplicate of a conscious creature". The point is that if consciousness can be explained by science, then we should be able to derive the facts of consciousness from the microphysical facts (and thus show that zombies are inconceivable, and hence impossible); however, it is notoriously difficult to do this because the essentially first person relationship we have with our own consciousness renders it inaccessible from a scientific approach which is necessarily third-person.
I argued that it is possible to show that there will be some facts of consciousness (thus proving that zombies are impossible) by showing that some computational cognitive systems would take first person approaches to their own states.
However, this reasoning also showed that it is impossible to specify the exact nature of the conscious experience, thus allowing that "spectres" (short for "differently-conscious microphysical duplicate of a conscious creature") are conceivable. However, this conceivability can also be explained by the same reasoning, and so is not taken as evidence for possibility.

Funny, I hadn't been into this stuff for years, but just today I went to the library to get a few books out about this stuff.

[Cloud]

we laugh at the face of death. Laugh! I say!

[ZenGum]

I was thinking weird news, but I always say, keep all the undead together.

Grave concerns over Brisbane zombie plague

Brisbane Zombie Walk organisers could face a police bill for future events, after up to 5,000 zombies lurched through the CBD on Sunday.

Zombie Santas, strippers, soldiers and nurses surged through the city on Sunday, forcing police to block off streets and direct traffic.

On Tuesday evening co-organiser Anthony Radaza posted on the Brisbane Zombie Walk Facebook page: We just received the official report from Queensland Police and they tallied over 5,000 participants. Hurray for Brisbane and Zombie lovers."

More at the link.