I had the idea that it would be wonderful to be a physicist or a mathematician maybe 500 years ago around the time of Newton when there were really fundamental things just lying around to be discovered.

My interests started about in science and in mathematics, I always thought I was going to be a mathematician.

How does the water of the brain turn into the wine of consciousness?

I think the existence of zombies would contradict certain laws of nature in our world. It seems to be a law of nature, in our world, that when you get a brain of a certain character you get consciousness going along with it.

It probably helps that my background is in the sciences and I can speak the scientists' language.

I think that consciousness has always been the most important topic in the philosophy of mind, and one of the most important topics in cognitive science as a whole, but it had been surprisingly neglected in recent years.

There's certainly nothing original about the observation that conscious experience poses a hard problem.