the problem with your suggestion is that it is merely affirming the consequent: brains are conscious and robots are not brains therefore robots are not consciou

the problem with your suggestion is that it is merely affirming the consequent: brains are conscious and robots are not brains therefore robots are not conscious. actually the real question is why are brains conscious? if we could answer that, then we could gather conscious things together (human brains, dog brains, slime mold, not trees, not grass) -- you see. its not sufficient to just say "brain" or "organic matter". the diversity of life (ex bird brain vs squid brain while both creatures demonstrate self awareness) suggests a compelling hypothesis: multiple realizability. if multiple realizability is true then perhaps the explanation is that it is not the substrate that is relevant but the arrangement, the programming, whatever... point being, im guessing you have a bio background and so you're a skeptic about virtual minds and in the more strict sense that is a very valid point -- most in the field of AI do not have any bio background at all and as you say, the only thing known for certain to be conscious being your own mind, well, you'd think understanding the bio would yield some insights. well actually it has, ex hinton's work is very much inspired by actual biology (neurology) /end rant