and the more i think about the p-zombie, the more i think about how my "answer", such as it is, has always boiled down to "man, fuck it, if i really cant tell, like really for sure, im erring on the side of not being a fucking dick at best and a callous monster at worst"
and the muddier the line gets, the more skeptical and uncomfortable i get with people loudly, vociferously DEMANDING, not arguing, but DECREEING that consciousness is ours (humans, or humans and birds and bees and worms etc) alone, and always will be. we arent special. and thats not a bad thing
i honestly dont think were there yet. but im extremely worried that if/when we are there, whether or not we can ever truly know, as tho this is some objective truth handed down from above, there will be throngs of people with reactionary stances prepared and honed and eager to be let loose
i frankly dont care at this point how im seen online, on social media. im already an unperson in the eyes of wide swathes of society. if ppl see me as delusional or naive or gullible or sees transhumanist in my bio and goes "ah, you are literally peter thiel techbro guy", so be it. whatever
and there are people like me, in similar situations to me, unpersoned for the same reasons as me, who will see me like that. who will see my making any tenuous connection between my/our subjectivity and what im talking about as farce, as offensive. and so be it again. whatever again
all i know is that my thoughts and worldview are and have been, like everyone elses, shaped by my experiences. and seeing not just the arguments, but the VENOM with which people discuss even the POSSIBILITY, present or future, of consciousness, of personhood, of anything that Is Not Us, scares me
its all in absolutes. its invective and vitriol and DERISION at not just the idea or possibility of consciousness or personhood, but at the gullibility and stupidity and self delusion and assured moral failings of anyone that might argue for it, or its future potential. it rhymes uncomfortably