If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level

Re:If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at... by indigo945 on Monday July 27, 2026 @08:46AM (#49068899)

    > And it kind of assumes that qualia have an ultimate 
    > physical manifestation - rather than being merely a
    > rhetorical device.

Denial of Qualia has long been an outlier position in the philosophy of mind, so this is not altogether surprising. (This is saying nothing, of course, about whether it is true or not.)

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Re:If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at... by josh-sematic on Monday July 27, 2026 @09:05AM (#49069139)

I don’t know that I’d call it that much of an outlier position. Compatibilists, functionalists, and plenty of physicalists in general would deny that qualia exist or that they’re a well-defined notion.

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