I think that THE KEY TO CONSCIOUSNESS is that the real-world existence of fundamental-level categories, relationships and numbers does not imply knowledge of their existence.
And so, the real-world mathematical system requires a fundamental-level on-the-spot knowledge/ consciousness of its own categories, relationships and numbers in order for the real-world system to be able do its mathematical processing.
I am saying that fundamental level matter is necessarily conscious of, has knowledge of, its own fundamental-level categories, relationships and numbers.
So, low-level matter in a computer could conceivably be conscious of:
- The category that we call “voltage”; and
- A number (i.e. what we represent as a number) associated with the voltage; and
- The relationship between voltage and other categories, that we represent as a mathematical equation.
However, this low-level matter in a computer would not be conscious of the bigger picture, i.e. what human beings are using the voltages, transistors and circuits in a computer for. Human beings are using arrangements of voltages, transistors and circuits in a computer to represent man-made symbols like binary digits, letters, words, numbers and mathematical symbols and equations etc. The low-level matter in a computer could not be conscious of the arrangements or the significance of the arrangements to human beings.
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There are plenty of ostensibly conscious people, e.g. theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson, who claim that computers/ AIs could be conscious. And, equally, there are seemingly plenty of ostensibly conscious people who claim that computers/ AIs CAN’T be conscious.
In any case, whatever they believe, it is incumbent on anyone making any claims at all about consciousness to FIRST define what they mean by the word “consciousness”. Is that asking too much?
But it is very noticeable that these ostensibly conscious people can’t even tell you what they think consciousness is. They themselves are conscious people, and yet they can’t find a use for their own personal consciousness. What a pathetic situation!
