Supporting Arguments

These arguments support the possibility that consciousness can emerge from computational processes.

Most natural processes are computable, so it's likely consciousness is too.

If you slowly replaced your neurons with functionally equivalent chips, your consciousness would fade but you wouldn't be able to report it.

If your neurons were rapidly swapped with functionally equivalent chips that don't support qualia, you would not be able to report the "dance".

Computational models have been very successful at reproducing cognition, so they will eventually reproduce phenomenal consciousness too.

Since different brains can have the same mental state (e.g., pain), what must matter is the functional pattern, not the physical material.

Evolution would not select for consciousness if it didn't have a useful function.

A scientific, functional explanation is simpler and thus preferable to one that invokes the mystery of qualia.

When we look inward, we only observe the functional roles of our mental states, and never "non-functional" qualia.

If reality is fundamentally just a set of relationships, then consciousness is also defined by its relational (and thus functional) structure.

If reality is fundamentally made of information, then consciousness is a form of (substrate independent) information processing.