The Fatal Flaw in Chalmers’ Zombies
The Essential Role of Phenomenal Experience
This essay demonstrates a fatal architectural flaw in David Chalmers’ famous philosophical zombies argument. Using the Language of Stress framework, it shows that phenomenal experience is not an optional extra but the necessary common currency for prioritization in any self-maintaining system. Without valenced tension dynamics organized around a defended self-model, a system cannot adjudicate competing demands and therefore cannot function as a coherent organism.
Pace, J. C. (2026). The Fatal Flaw in Chalmers’ Zombies. FigShare. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.31836139
Overview
This essay demonstrates a fatal architectural flaw in David Chalmers’ famous philosophical zombies argument. Using the Language of Stress framework, it shows that phenomenal experience is not an optional extra but the necessary common currency for prioritization in any self-maintaining system. Without valenced tension dynamics organized around a defended self-model, a system cannot adjudicate competing demands and therefore cannot function as a coherent organism.
The critique reframes zombies as computationally incoherent once prioritization pressure is taken seriously.