Zombies more subtle than ninjas

[nancylebov]

FADE IN around a serious-looking group of uniformed military officers. At the head of the table, a senior, heavy-set man, GENERAL FRED, speaks.

GENERAL FRED: The reports are confirmed. New York has been overrun... by zombies.

COLONEL TODD: Again? But we just had a zombie invasion 28 days ago!

GENERAL FRED: These zombies... are different. They're... philosophical zombies.

CAPTAIN MUDD: Are they filled with rage, causing them to bite people?

COLONEL TODD: Do they lose all capacity for reason?

GENERAL FRED: No. They behave... exactly like we do... except that they're not conscious.

(Silence grips the table.)

the rest of the philosophical horror movie

By Eliezer Yudkowsky.

Link thanks to en_ki.

Comments

[avram]

I'm pretty sure that epiphenomenon doesn't mean what he thinks it does.

Otherwise, brilliant.

[madfilkentist]

Some philosophers say that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of brain activity. I think that's what the story was alluding to.

[avram]

I'm aware of that; I believe it myself. But an epiphenomenon isn't something that "operate[s] outside our universe".