Page "Chinese room" Paragraph 22

; Dennett's reply from natural selection: Suppose that, by some mutation, a human being is born that does not have Searle's " causal properties " but nevertheless acts exactly like a human being.

( This sort of animal is called a " zombie " in thought experiments in the philosophy of mind ).

This new animal would reproduce just as any other human and eventually there would be more of these zombies.

Natural selection would favor the zombies, since their design is ( we could suppose ) a bit simpler.

Eventually the humans would die out.

So therefore, if Searle is right, it's most likely that human beings ( as we see them today ) are actually " zombies ," who nevertheless insist they are conscious.

However, this assumes that such a mutation is possible.