> What happens, for example, if we recreate the structure of the brain on a computer by interacting silicon chips where you had interacting neurons? Would it be missing anything that’s missing in the mind? I’d like to think that a computer could be conscious. I don't think consciousness is reducible to a pattern of interactions in the brain, but I do think that if one reproduces that pattern of interactions in fine enough detail, one will reproduce consciousness.<p>Perfectly said. Consciousness is not reducible to a pattern of interaction in the brain because it's a system of brain+world that creates consciousness. The brain learns from the world first, only later it is capable of independent imagination and thinking. A brain never connected to the world would not be conscious. An AI connected to the world (or a simulation) could be conscious of the world it exists in, and of its own existence there.