I think this argument is based on the false dichotomy of "The mind & body are either different or the same!". This denies things being similar, or multi-dimens

I think this argument is based on the false dichotomy of "The mind & body are either different or the same!". This denies things being similar, or multi-dimensional. Apply this same reasoning to hardware/software for example: "What is software code made of that it can simultaneously affect the physical hardware, yet somehow exist separately from it?" the mind, and software, are data, or information - and data can be replicated on multiple mediums. This data / medium distinction is no more or less perplexing. The "OK" hand-gesture can represent something in physical form, while the physical hand is distinct from the symbolic message it represents - if you want to get philosophical about symbology and representation I don't think there is a special case to be made for the mind. > Human consciousness is dependent on much more than our brains How can you support this statement when you first lead with "We don’t even know what consciousness is [yet]"? We have words for "god", "magic" and "spirits" too, and don't know what those are either; isn't it possible none of them exist? > we cannot emulate consciousness without first emulating the billions of gut bacteria Only is consciousness specifically depends on this aspect. It's like saying "The setting sun also affect our mood, so that must be emulated too!". That's not true though - It's be possible to emulate a human mind, without exactly reproducing the same personality and emotional profile of a modern human being. Simulating human environments and/or experience to feed a simulation data is a bigger project than replicating a mind. If you are simulating every detail of human existence the question is what you are trying to achieve; post-human AI being don't need to be anything like modern humans phycological; and I doubt the contributions to mood of gut bacteria are considered fundamental in that - and I've yet to hear a modern human consider the diet in questions of consciousness. For example, We live, and eat, very differently to our ancestors - Does that make us any less human, or conscious? I don't think so, and as such don't agree that: "All of it, it turns out".