I could in principle implement a spreadsheet or terminal emulator in human neurons, and we would agree that it isn't conscious. That has nothing to do with whether or not humans are conscious.
Clearly consciousness is an emergent property of certain kinds of network, independent of the substrate within which the network exists.
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Agreed. Some have even trained neural networks made of actual biological neurons to play doom[0]. Brain cells! Doing smart things!
I still wouldn’t argue that this brain in a Petri dish is, in any way, conscious. Despite it sharing the exact same substrate as everyone around me.
[0]: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/mar/16/petri-dish-bra...
If you could do that practically and in reality, and get back to us with the results so we can debate them, that would be great.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/358822.stm
Leech neurons used to implement a calculator.
Are you suggesting that applications above some level of complexity can't be implemented using biological components? Because I'm pretty sure all I need to show you is a NAND gate in order to prove that arbitrary computation is possible.
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It's not clear at all that consciousness is independent of the substrate. See the Harder Problem of Consciousness by Ned Block: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3655621
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