Unless you go for Cartesian dualist theories about immaterial souls, consciousness of the sort we experience is an artefact of the structure of our brains and nervous systems, which are large in scale and complex. A small blob of human-derived brain tissue is not going to have consciousness, let alone self-awareness and a sense of horror at its predicament, any more than a 555 timer is capable of playing DOOM by virtue of being made of silicon.
If you follow an integrated information theory derivation, consciousness is emergent from integrating and partitioning information, and with no immaterial soul the possible capability of awareness remains, even if not directly comparable to our own.
Give that brain some morphine as a treat to be on the safe side, most brains find that one relaxing.
Unless you go for Cartesian dualist theories about immaterial souls, consciousness of the sort we experience is an artefact of the structure of our brains and nervous systems, which are large in scale and complex. A small blob of human-derived brain tissue is not going to have consciousness, let alone self-awareness and a sense of horror at its predicament, any more than a 555 timer is capable of playing DOOM by virtue of being made of silicon.
If you follow an integrated information theory derivation, consciousness is emergent from integrating and partitioning information, and with no immaterial soul the possible capability of awareness remains, even if not directly comparable to our own.
Give that brain some morphine as a treat to be on the safe side, most brains find that one relaxing.
Haha my first thought was “I wonder if it’s possible to build a general purpose CPU out of 555 timers, then get DOOM running on that sucker.”
Of course, someone has already taken the first steps towards such a monstrosity.
https://hackaday.com/2021/12/17/implementing-a-cpu-using-555-timers-and-logic-synthesis/