Thread: Philosophical zombie dreamer

Not sure if this would help, but:

- If a philosophical zombie can be generalized as a hypothetical being that is able to exhibit certain mannerisms and behaviors as sentient beings such as us, albeit without consciously experiencing things…

- In context of the presumed p-zombie dreamer, there is no hope for them to have any reconciliation with being lucid in a dream, i.e., aware of the events going on (a conscious accompaniment). Now, one could presume that they could act as if they’re lucid while not being entirely lucid of living in false pretenses, but that would imply there’s just some kind of cognitive difficulty going on there.

- And if you feel you can’t experience the “redness” of a dream car, or whatever is the case, this means you acknowledge the probability that you are not a conscious accompaniment in the dream, and thus, you cannot infer that you’re aware of the events going on. Best case scenario, a false awakening may make you feel at ease, but this seems non-sequential to the dread you’re going through.

- Just because the “redness” or whatever “what-is-it-like”-ness seems infantile, vague, and blurry doesn’t mean there’s no hope for you. It’s just a matter of augmenting how much you put into context of those experiences in your dreams, i.e., dream journal, and how much you want to tap into predispositions for emotive reactions (and much more than I could bother theorizing), which could create a schemata of what it is like to dream. It may not be akin to this spatio-temporal reality, but the predispositions would be applied into a different context.

- Of course, one could say it’s merely psychosomatic, and bring up the p-zombie argument once again, but if this is the case that you’re still willing to linger on, and let your experience be hinged upon—then you are ultimately reacting in a way to where you could never develop rapport with the inner turmoil you could experience on a nightly basis. It’s an existential dread that may change you for better, or for worse.


So, maybe the p-zombie concept is non-sequential, and not as flourishing towards your yearning to explore the inner depths of your everyday cognition; the concept is just a thought experiment that exercises our minds, but it’s not something that should limit us, and be this end-all be-all source to refer to, I think. As for non-lucid dreams...oh boy.


Also, welcome!