Xander says:
. In short, why is the pretty basic physics going on in my head enought to make me self-aware when it is not enough to make a computer self-aware.
The reason I asked if you'd read about the Turing test (I'm glad you know what it is), is that you seem to be confusing the enormously complex human brain with the extremely simple set of microprocessors in your computer!
One key thing you've gotta remember is that the only way a computer will EVER (if it's even possible) be conscious is by SIMULATING consciousness, not by being conscious itself. This is a bit of a philosophical distinction, but I feel that it's an important one nevertheless. Human brain matter is inordinately complex when compared to the simple logic happening inside any computer in common use today. Another thing you need to keep in mind is that a computer uses the laws of Boolean logic exclusively, whereas the human brain does no such thing. To use a relatively inaccurate analogy, the human brain is analog, whereas the computer is digital.
An analog representation of a number between 1 and 0 has an infinite series of numbers in between 0 and 1, but a binary representation of the same problem yields exactly two solutions. This is why the human brain is so much more complex. Add to that the fact that a computer has an extremely limited number of total connection points between it's various functional components as compared to the brain, and you will see the point I am trying to make. Computers as we have them today will never, ever be conscious - our technology still needs to make several forward steps before we can even think of trying to create consciousness.
But, the soup thickens, as my uncle would say. Between every axon in your brain are the nerve fibers. These nerve fibers are coated in myelin (IIRC that's the name for them), a fatty substance that sheaths and protects them.
Scientists have discovered that the behaviour of this fatty sheath is remarkable, and that there are actually very strange effects in those sheaths that change the way electronic pulses travel between the nerves.
Oh, and another place where the computer/brain comparison fails is that the brain sends information not only using electronic means, but also by chemical means. So there are actually multiple layers of information in any particular nerve cell travelling back and forth.
This has been my Saturday night rant
