As reported here, David Chalmers argues that "consciousness arises in virtue of the functional organization of the brain rather than in virtue of the brain's material substrate." I agree with that, but not because of the 'fading qualia' and 'dancing qualia' arguments discussed in this post. The two arguments amount to the assertion that we would not be able to tell, introspectively, if our carbon-matter neurons were replaced with silicon. I think it would be neat if we could switch silicon neurons off and on, but I wouldn't speculate as to what it would feel like, if anything. See also the Gradient.
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