The Philosophy of Mind: Zombies, "radical emergence" and evidence of non-experiential

[The Grand Nudger]

So this is an admission that you were wrong then? Philosophical zombies could do all the things you previously said required consciousness.

I've repeatedly told you that I don't think consciousness is a requirement for a wide range of things.  The fact remains, however, that it is sufficient for at least some things. Evolution is a process of sufficiency, not necessity. It makes precisely zero sense to approach any selective advantage in this way, or to dismiss them on those grounds.

Um... the entire point of the philosophical zombie argument that you are supposed to be addressing is a matter of that. The point is that there isn't necessarily any reason why consciousness had to evolve along with brains per se... as all behaviors could be achieved without consciousness. You keep failing to demonstrate the undemonstratable and continuing to claim that consciousness has a function without any actual or argument that supports otherwise (not surprised, such a thing isn't possible). Is this the part where you say "But in this case consciousness does perform that function" and simply miss the point and completely beg the question again?

The evolutionary benefit of consciousness in AST is p-zombie neutral.  It doesn't matter...to AST, whether you are a p-zombie or a real boy™.  It posits that consciousness as reported -or- consciousness as reporting are both functionally useful as control models.  It's important to note that it's not a cognitive theory of consciousness, either.  It doesn't posit that the model is in control. Can you see how that bypasses every objection you have personally expressed to the notion of consciousness conferring a selective advantage?

Those things aren't issues for AST any more than necessity is an issue for selective advantage.

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Maybe this is more an argument for the utility of empathy than it is an argument for the utility of consciousness, but I would say that the utility of empathy is contingent upon the existence of consciousness.  

It may not be contingent, we don't know....what we can demonstrate, though, is that attention is less well-controlled in the absence of awareness. In a nutshell, that's what makes AST an evolutionary theory of consciousness.