A reader, via Jonah:

Be sure to ask Derb about Zombies. As you may know (and he no doubt does) the concept of Zombies is part of a serious thought experiment on the nature of human consciousness. I know, it is a very prosaic way to approach the subject of Zombies. But for those of us who only know of Zombies, not counting those in the audience of lectures about health care reform, through movies like “The Omega Man” (OK, they weren’t really Zombies in that one), how they relate to the puzzle of consciousness is actually pretty interesting.
For dessert, ask Derb to tell you about the Chinese Room. You will be enthralled.

[Me] I dunno about “enthralled.” The relevant concepts can be found in Daniel Dennett’s book Consciousness Explained, which is a sort of ur-text for all this stuff, or in more recent works like Andy Ross’s Mindworlds.

The zombie thought experiment asks: Is it possible to have a fully functional human being — one indistinguishable from your regular Joe in general behavioral characteristics — that does not possess consciousness? The current consensus among cog-sci folk seems to be “No.”

Dennett conjures up an even more fine-tuned notion than the zombie, which he calls a “zimboe,” but I forget the details. I think a zimboe does have consciousness, but doesn’t know that he does . . . something like that. Hey, go look it up.

The Chinese Room is another famous thought experiment in early Consciousness Studies, cooked up by philosopher John Searle. Everything you could possibly want to know about it, and then some, is at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. From my occasional contacts with the Consciousness Studies folk, the present consensus seems to be that all Searle proved was that individual neurons don’t have consciousness, duh . . . but I don’t keep a close watch & may be misapprehending the current state of play.

For a golden oldie, here’s my National Review write-up of the 2008 Consciousness Studies conference.

[Extra points for readers who catch the Heinlein reference in my subject line.]