The "hearer" is nothing more than certain patterns of neuron firing
I agree, but of course you don't literally mean what you're saying here if you're truly a reductionist. I think the problem people have thinking about this is that people are thinking about what we're seeing in neurons with modern science, rather than what the neurons are actually doing and what the computations and physics they're actually reducing to are.
Yes, I do literally mean this. Of course, when I say "patterns of neurons firing", that is nothing more than a compact way to talk about the brain biochemistry and cells going on.
In Zombies! Zombies? Eliezer mentions that one aspect of consciousness is that it can causally affect the real world, e.g. cause you to say "I feel conscious right now", or result in me typing out these words.
Even if a generally accepted mechanism of consciousness has not been found yet are there any tentative explanations for this "can change world" property? Googling around I was unable to find anything (although Zombies are certainly popular).
I had an idea of how this might work, but just wanted to see if it was worth the effort of writing.