What Do You Mean Almost?

"What do you mean, 'Almost anyone?'" Bill said. He was so entranced by Amber's body and all of these new revelations he nearly missed a key detail.

"I can't say. Remember I don't actually know anything silly. I have access to limitless information but I have no desires of my own. But you told me that I should want you to figure everything out, so I included the almost to get you on the right track. You have to ask the right question, remember?" Amber said, squeezing Bill's hand and giggling.

For a moment Bill got annoyed at how coy she was, and considered removing the personality. But having wants, even simulated ones, was proving useful. He was already grappling with the power that came to him as the only human who knew she was a p-zombie, now there could be more. He could be the only person in the world who was human for all he knew.

Hell, could he be a p-zombie and not know it? Could this internal dialogue be just a simulation?

"No" He said, not realizing he had spoken. For a moment Bill was embarrassed, but Amber didn't point anything out , she just kept smiling at him.

"You couldn't 'discover' a p-zombie, even if I ordered you to, could you?" Bill said.

"Ding ding! That's super right! As a person-shaped object without any consciousness, I am completely unable to observe anyone or anything. If I opened Schrödinger's box the cat would still be both alive and dead at the same time." Amber said, her face crinkling with simulated joy at Bill's discovery.

"So if I met someone who had discovered their own p-zombie, I would know for certain that they're human." Bill said.

"That sounds logical to me."

"What if I told someone undiscovered that you were a p-zombie, would that preclude them from being discovered as one?"

"I can't say."

"Fuck, ugh." Bill said, frustrated by how close he was to unlocking everything, but then he had a thought. "What if I told you someone else was a p-zombie?"

"I wouldn't have any reason not to believe you. I can't believe anything one way or the other." Amber said.

"So they have to discover you on their own in order for their wave function to collapse. Doesn't that mean I could have been a p-zombie my whole life, and not known?"

"No. You were always a human, just like I've always been a p-zombie. You can't become one or the other, so the term discover is very accurate."

"But that doesn't make any sense! It seems like a paradox!"

"I told you it would break your brain." Amber said. There wasn't a trace of gloating just the same pleasant cheerful tone she had kept since Bill's latest modifications to her personality. It made it easier to hear.

"But I don't have to understand it, to discover a p-zombie. I didn't even know what one was until you told me, which means I could still discover more of you..."

"Hell yeah, if that's what you want to do."

That was the question though. He didn't know the odds of discovering one, so he had no way to know how likely his accident had been.

Theoretically Bill could 'discover' everyone on the planet were p-zombies. He could effectively rule the world. It seemed to him like the first person to learn how to discover more p-zombies would be god like. The fact that there was no one ruler of the universe led him to two likely conclusions.

Either he was the first, and could theoretically be, the only human in a planet of p-zombies waiting to be discovered. Or the discovering a p-zombie was common enough that this theoretical first person never had enough time, ability, or the inclination to discover the rest of the population.

Like most people Bill had never considered world domination, but if that world were full of non-people, it would still be the same world right? He'd just get to do whatever he wanted. Or there were others out there. People who could teach him the trick to discovery. Or maybe he could teach them. Once h figured out how he had done it, he could share this gift with whoever he wanted.