Two coffee tasters at Maxwell House suddenly hate the coffee they once loved. One says he's just become more sophisticated, while the other insists his taste buds must be broken -- even though they're drinking the exact same coffee they've had for years. Philosopher Daniel Dennett uses their predicament to challenge something we all take for granted: that we have special, direct access to our own conscious experiences. If we can't even tell whether it's our sensations or our preferences that have changed, how can we be so sure that consciousness is anything more than sophisticated information processing?
