I agree that consciousness arises from normal physics and biology, there’s nothing extra needed, even if I don’t yet know how. I expect that we will, in time, be able to figure out the mechanistic explanation for the how. But right now, this model very effectively solves the Easy Problem, while essentially declaring the Hard Problem not important. The question of, “Yes, but why that particular qualia-laden engineered solution?” is still there, unexplained and ignored. I’m not even saying that’s a tactical mistake! Sometimes ignoring a problem we’re not yet equipped to address is the best way to make progress towards getting the tools to eventually address it. What I am saying is that calling this a “debunking” is misdirection.
I get your point – explaining why things feel the specific way they do is the key difficulty, and it’s fair to say this model doesn’t fully crack it. Instead of ignoring it though, this article tries a different angle: what if the feeling is the functional signature arising within the self-model? It’s proposing an identity, not just a correlation. (And yeah, fair point on the original ‘debunking’ title – the framing has been adjusted!).
That seems very possible to me, and if and when we can show whether something like that is the case, I do think it would represent significant progress. If nothing else, it would help tell us what the thing we need to be examining actually is, in a way we don’t currently have an easy way to specify.
I agree that consciousness arises from normal physics and biology, there’s nothing extra needed, even if I don’t yet know how. I expect that we will, in time, be able to figure out the mechanistic explanation for the how. But right now, this model very effectively solves the Easy Problem, while essentially declaring the Hard Problem not important. The question of, “Yes, but why that particular qualia-laden engineered solution?” is still there, unexplained and ignored. I’m not even saying that’s a tactical mistake! Sometimes ignoring a problem we’re not yet equipped to address is the best way to make progress towards getting the tools to eventually address it. What I am saying is that calling this a “debunking” is misdirection.
I get your point – explaining why things feel the specific way they do is the key difficulty, and it’s fair to say this model doesn’t fully crack it. Instead of ignoring it though, this article tries a different angle: what if the feeling is the functional signature arising within the self-model? It’s proposing an identity, not just a correlation. (And yeah, fair point on the original ‘debunking’ title – the framing has been adjusted!).
That seems very possible to me, and if and when we can show whether something like that is the case, I do think it would represent significant progress. If nothing else, it would help tell us what the thing we need to be examining actually is, in a way we don’t currently have an easy way to specify.