I am not trying to appeal to any supernatural explanation. The closest (crude) example I can think of is seeing the effect of a magnet on iron filings for years and then finally determining there's a magnetic field involved. Without study I suppose somebody could conclude that iron filings just really liked magnets and creating interesting formations. I am curious as to the mechanism behind the... subjective experience of being, I guess.
Ultimately, I was simply unsure about the assertion that all parties would naturally agree (without support) to "once you accept that humans are fully physical, embodied minds in a sea of whatever chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier".
This raises a number of questions, which other people have raised before (Does consciousness require a wet brain or just the information processing that goes on within (or something else)? is a computer that simulates the processes of a brain conscious? Is a computer that simulates 1% of the processes of a brain conscious? I am conscious now, and if my brain were dissolved in acid I would not be, but what structures and processes must be destroyed or interrupted to bring about that end to consciousness, and is it a discrete or continuous phenomenon? Are computers now conscious but only infinitesimally so? Is there a degree of consciousness in any structure that processes information? How would we even know? What is consciousness?)
Ultimately, I was simply unsure about the assertion that all parties would naturally agree (without support) to "once you accept that humans are fully physical, embodied minds in a sea of whatever chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier".
This raises a number of questions, which other people have raised before (Does consciousness require a wet brain or just the information processing that goes on within (or something else)? is a computer that simulates the processes of a brain conscious? Is a computer that simulates 1% of the processes of a brain conscious? I am conscious now, and if my brain were dissolved in acid I would not be, but what structures and processes must be destroyed or interrupted to bring about that end to consciousness, and is it a discrete or continuous phenomenon? Are computers now conscious but only infinitesimally so? Is there a degree of consciousness in any structure that processes information? How would we even know? What is consciousness?)
I would try to elaborate, but really it's better described at the articles (and sources for same) here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness
I accept this comment is weak. However, it's not an assertion as to what the nature of consciousness is.