WHAT ZOMBIES DON'T KNOW
Consciousness, what is it good for? If all the science fiction geeks are right, then we will soon build machines that can think -- maybe even faster and better than humans. If so, then high-level thinking doesn't require consciousness. Put a thinking machine in the form of a human body, then you've got a robot.
If the Darwinists are correct, those ruthless genes of ours don't need us to be self-aware to propogate themselves through generation after generation of our bodies. By that line of logic, mere material existence within the vast expanse of the cosmos doesn't require consciousness. To reproduce we just don't need to know that we know. A merely mechanical universe will work just fine with humans devoid of consciousness -- i.e., zombies.
Nevertheless, I am conscious of what I think, feel, and do. I am conscious of the life I experience. So what does a conscious creature like me know that a robot or a zombie doesn't? Because I am conscious, I know that my fellow human beings are also conscious. (Yes, I cannot know that directly, but that isn't critical to my point here.) I know that other people are like me, and because I love myself, I can love that which is like me. In this regard a zombie is invincibly ignorant. He can never know love, and without knowledge of love ...
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