Mind Over Matter?

[Alex K]

And I claim that as soon as you implement these skills  as a neural network (as opposed to a hypothetical collection of prerecorded reactions), there is no such thing as a philosophical Zombie. What you call consciousness is simply what a brain with such skills looks like to itself. You hopelessly overrate how special consciousness is when you make it a fundamental principle of the universe. Or rather, you can declare that, but it makes no discernible difference

Pretty confident statement of material monism you have there.  And yet we are talking about something you can't see, interact with directly, or even prove conclusively that it exists anywhere. 

You (or the opponents of monism) seem to be claiming the separate existence of this thing called consciousness, not me. Burden of proof not on my side

Material monists don't normally spend time writing posts about things that they can neither see, nor are required to explain what can be seen.  That you do talk about it seems to indicate that YOU think it's pretty special, too.

It is sufficient reason to talk about it that we all seem to share a pervasive illusion that it's special in a metaphysical sense. It's not necessary to actually be special in order to talk about it.
Skeptics talk about ghosts because people believe they exist. That's not a tacit admission that they really do exist. That's a very stupid argument.