You've made some good points not in the original discussion, e.g. on anaesthesia. Perhaps it suspends itself for the duration, goes somewhere else (not necess

You've made some good points not in the original discussion, e.g. on anaesthesia. Perhaps it suspends itself for the duration, goes somewhere else (not necessarily a physical place) and doesn't keep its memory of that when you come round. My position can be summarized thus: if someone made a Sonic the Hedgehog toy which could interact meaningfully with its environment I would entertain the possibility it had some rudimentary consciousness. But unlike the character in the computer game, that wouldn't be a simulation. Could the character you see on the screen in the computer game be conscious? I don't think so.