CF Debate

Dancing Qualia

Overview

Imagine a system where we can rapidly toggle back and forth between neurons and silicon chips that implement the same functional roles. If CF is false and the neuronal substrate does matter for consciousness, then the person's experiences would rapidly flip (or "dance") between different states as the medium is swapped (since the silicon chip does not support qualia, or supports different qualia). However, there would be no change in behaviour, introspective report, or cognitive access (because the causal structure of the neural network would remain unchanged) – which seems absurd.

Responses

  1. Same as Fading Qualia.

Further reading