Consciousness does seem different in that we can have a better and better understanding of all the various functional elements but that we're 1) left with a sort of argument from analogy for others having qualia 2) even if we can resolve(1), I can't see how we can start to know whether my green is your red etc. etc.
I can't think of many comparable cases: certainly I don't think containership is comparable. You and I could end up looking at the AI in the moment before it destroys/idealises/both the world and say 'gosh, I wonder if it's conscious'. This is nothing like the casuistic 'but what about this container gives it its containerness'. I think we're on the same point here, though?
I'm intuitively very confident you're conscious: and yes, seeing you were human would help (in that one of the easiest ways I can imagine you weren't conscious is that you're actually a computer designed to post about things on less wrong. This would also explain why you like Dennett - I've always suspected he's a qualia-less robot too! ;-)
Yes, I agree that we're much more confused about subjective experience than we are about containership.
We're also more confused about subjective experience than we are about natural language, about solving math problems, about several other aspects of cognition. We're not _un_confused about those things, but we're less confused than we used to be. I expect us to grow still less confused over time.
I disagree about the lack of comparable cases. I agree about containers; that's just an intuition pump. But the issues that concern you here arise for any the...
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