CCC comments on Confused as to usefulness of 'consciousness' as a concept - LessWrong
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Ah, thank you. That makes it a lot clearer.
I've seen a system that I'm pretty sure fulfills your criteria - it uses a set of multiple cameras at carefully defined positions and reconciles the pictures from these cameras to try to figure out the exact location of an object with a very specific colour and appearance. That would be the "phenomenal consciousness" that you describe; but I would not call that system any more or less conscious than any other computer.
Ah - surely that requires something more than just an appearance-reality distinction. That requires appearance-reality distinction and the ability to select its own thoughts. While the specific system I refer to in the second paragraph has an appearance-reality distinction, I have yet to see any sign that it is capable of choosing what to think about.
That (thought selection) seems like a good angle. I just wanted to throw out a necessary condition for phenomenal consciousness, not a sufficient one.