> These are all fine questions, and they don't become any easier to answer if you replace "computers" with "brains" and "bits" with "neurons".
What is even being argued here - neuroscience is hard, so programming your PC thus makes it conscious?
> "That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."
… what?
What is even being argued here - neuroscience is hard, so programming your PC thus makes it conscious?
We don't understand how combining a bunch of obviously(?) non-conscious biological components can produce a larger system that is conscious, so it's unwarranted to be certain that that can't happen with software.
Cells are living entities, can't they be conscious? I think they are. Is not that human consciousness comes out of raw materials. They are alive, not as bits or circuits. That can't be discussed.