Is conscious experience something that separates humans from artificial intelligences? "Would a neuron-for-neuron silicon isomorph of you have conscious experiences? Or is there something special about the biology of neurons?" This article offers an analysis of David Chalmers's "fading qualia" argument that there's nothing in principle special about neurons. The idea is that if you replaced each human neuron one by one with a silicon neuron you'd never notice the difference. "If your consciousness were fading away," argues Chalmers, "you would notice it." In response, Eric Schwitzgebel describes what he calls the "audience problem" - "the intended audience remains unconvinced by this apparent introspective testimony." So the human-turned-robot claims to be conscious. Why should we believe it?
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