This seems critical. It would be unethical by almost anybody's standards to do the human experiment, but the equivalent animal experiment may have been done, an

This seems critical. It would be unethical by almost anybody's standards to do the human experiment, but the equivalent animal experiment may have been done, and seems like it would be informative. I don't expect a brain without input and output functions to be capable of consciousness. Consciousness and the sense of self are a kind of understanding. Without experimentation, understanding seems impossible.