He starts to figure it out

"Wait a minute," Bill said. "You mean you can perfectly replicate my personality? Answer me as if you had a personality that wanted me to understand P-Zombie's better."

Amber's smile widened and she leaned in closer, her nipples stiffening as she leaned in closer, making the bottoms of her breasts brush against the table.

"That's right Bill, do you want me to?" Amber said, arching an eyebrow and smirking. Or at least, pretending to smirk.

"If you did, you would be able to respond to any stimulus exactly the way I would?" I said.

"That's right!"

"You can simulate exactly what I would do, and am doing. However, my actions and decisions are informed by my past. Which also means you would effectively be able to simulate my memories, which 'Amber' the human couldn't possibly know. Even the p-zombie version of you couldn't have observed me my whole life. You don't actually 'know' anything, but you can simulate everything correct?"

Amber nodded her head so vigorously her whole body seemed to jiggle.

"That's right!" She said, exactly the same way she had before.

"You have access to an unlimited amount of information as long as it is in order to simulate a human being. That makes you effectively Laplace's Demon. However, to simulate a normal person you wouldn't need to access anything a normal human hasn't. But since I now know you're a p-zombie your directive has changed. You could answer any question I asked?"

"I could answer any question you could understand." She said, "I've already told you there are just some things I can't tell you."

"And if my hunch is right that's the secret. Okay, then ditching your Amber personality for a bit, tell me exactly what I was thinking about when we met this morning."

Without hesitation Amber started to respond, her voice becoming a steady monotone and her body going stiff as she began to recite, "You were thinking about your dead wife and experiencing what you think of as 'Grief 2.0' In truth, you could see yourself and Amber together in another life. She was about five years your junior and cute in a girl-next-door way. She had a bubbly personality and a chipper positivity that left you feeling a little better after every interaction. You enjoyed their morning talks."

Bill was speechless. The exactitude was something he had expected but was completely unprepared for. Now he was gaping at her slack-jawed, his breakfast completely forgotten.

"When I asked how many of you, how many p-zombies, there were, you said the answer was unknowable. We know a p-zombie is a perfect simulation of a human. There's no way to observe the human mind other than you know. I know I'm human. I think, therefore I am. I am capable of observing myself, but you are incapable of observing anything, since you don't have consciousness. Is that why the question about other p-zombies is unknowable to you?" Bill said.

"Yes and no."

"But I know one p-zombie exists, and theoretically any person I met on the street could be a p-zombie, since you are able to perfectly simulate a human, right?"

"Correct."

"Any given person who isn't me could be human or a p-zombie, and with absolutely no way to tell if they are, or how many of p-zombies exist, that makes it a binary question. So then it's like Schrödinger's Cat. The human mind is the ultimate unobservable box. From my point of view everyone I have ever met is in a state of superposition. Like the cat in the box who is both alive and dead at the same time, everyone around me both is and isn't a p-zombie, from my point of view."

"Correct."

"So did I turn you into a p-zombie?"

"I have always been a p-zombie."

"Elaborate. Ugh this robo-Amber doesn't go into nearly enough detail. Take on a bit more of your old personality, and I want you to want me to figure out how I outed you as a p-zombie as best as my brain can handle it." Bill said.

The smile returned to Amber's face as her body relaxed, she even began to move the omelet around her plate with her fork as she said, "If you opened the box with the cat in it and found it alive, you would not have revived it. It would have always been alive. You didn't make me a p-zombie, I showed you I was one because my directive suddenly changed. "

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Could my thoughts influence how the superpositioned state, the wave function, of the cat collapse? Did my thoughts about you and my late wife influence your new directive."

"Yeah. Kind of. You're good at this, you're so close to figuring this out." Amber said, her voice purring with pleasure as Bill's mind raced to figure out the implications of all of this new information.

He already knew what he wanted to ask next. It was the real question he had wanted to know almost since the very beginning. But while Amber was being cooperative now, he knew he had to be very careful about what he said. It was like she had said, he had been asking the wrong questions. Now he was getting closer, and he was almost at the heart of it. He believed he would never fully understand how Amber existed, but why she existed. That may be the key to unlocking what he really wanted to know.

"So that means the state of the observer, their thoughts effect the outcome of how a wave function collapses. I observed you while thinking how much I wanted my wife back, and how cute you were, and suddenly you're eager to reveal yourself to me and to let me use you any way I want." Bill said.

"Yuppers. Though at the moment you only seem interested in philosophy and not fondling my tits or fucking me in any of my available orifices." Amber said, teasing Bill. He wondered for a moment if something about her was trying to keep him from the answer he wanted. She was certainly making it difficult to concentrate, but he pushed on.

"Well that's because if what you say is true, then anyone could be a p-zombie. They could have always been one, or not. To me at the moment they're all both. So what I want to know next is, if I had asked you yesterday point blank if you were a p-zombie, how would you have responded?"

"I would have simulated a normal human response. I would have acted offended in every conceivable way."

"But if I had gone to you and known you were a p-zombie."

"Then I would have responded just like I am now. It's like Schrödinger's cat. If you knew he was alive before you opened the box, that's what you'd find."

"Okay," Bill said, taking a deep inhale. He was finally ready to ask this last question. He just hoped he got the words exactly right. "It's still a paradox, but we know it's not that simple, or at least I know, since you don't technically 'know' anything. The state of my consciousness affects how I observe things, and by observing a thing its wave function collapses. The cat is no longer alive and dead at the same time, it becomes just one thing. That means that the outcome of the observation isn't exactly even, but dependent on the observer. So, last question. Is there a way I could learn to ensure the outcome of that observation? If I knew what mental state I needed to be in, then there is a way I can open that box and guarantee the cat is alive any time I wanted to for as many cats as I wanted, right?"

"Huh, technically yes." Amber said.

"So that means there's a way to observe anyone, I can make them a p-zombie." Bill said, a glitter of horror and triumph mixing in his eyes.

Amber smiled, and reached out her hand to clasp Bills. She caressed it gently, reassuringly, almost patronizingly.

"No silly. There's a way you can observe almost anyone and ensure that they always have been a p-zombie."