Zombie

“What if our thoughts and our actions only sync up some of the time?”

“I’m… sorry… what?”

“I said, what if our thoughts and our actions sync up some of the time? What if the person doing the thinking can have absolutely nothing to do with the person performing the actions? What if there are just two separate beings that, for the moment, seem to coincide? And some day, at some point, the two beings go entirely out of sync. Do you get what I’m saying?”

“Did… did you need to use the microwave? Once I’m done making my lunch, you can use it.”

“I don’t need the microwave.”

“I was just going to heat up to my chili and then go back to my desk.”

“I want to have a conversation.”

“Okay. Uh…”

“There’s thinking, right? The person in your head who thinks, I am at work. Call him the thinker. I am in the kitchen. I am making my lunch. That’s one being. And then there’s your body, and the actions it takes, and the things it does. Call that being the actor.”

“Uh huh.”

“The thinker goes, I want to move my hand. And then the actor moves the hand. It appears that these two things are connected — the thinker, and the actor. But what if there’s no connection at all? What if it’s just a coincidence? What if, for now, one part thinks, and one part acts, and it syncs up. But what if, at some point, it stops syncing up? The thinker goes, I’m going to move my hand. And then the actor, he walks over to the microwave, takes out your lunch, and throws it in the trash.”

“You… you just threw my lunch in the trash.”

“I was making a point.”

“I was going to eat that.”

“I know, I’m sorry. But I thought I’d get my point across better with a dramatic gesture.”

“It’s… okay. I guess. It’s okay. Look, are you having some kind of… trouble?”

“Trouble? I don’t know what you mean.”

“Well, I… I think… I think I understand what you’re… saying. A thinker, and an actor, in sync. But a coincidence? That’s some coincidence. I think about doing something, and then I act. The thinker and the actor are the same person. There’s no reason to think it’s just… That…