>The missing variable in most debates is environmental coherence. Any conscious agent, textual or physical, has to inhabit a world whose structure is stable, se

>The missing variable in most debates is environmental coherence. Any conscious agent, textual or physical, has to inhabit a world whose structure is stable, self-consistent, and rich enough to support persistent internal dynamics. Even a purely symbolic mind would still need a coherent symbolic universe. I'm not sure what relevance that has to consciousness? I mean you can imagine a consciousness where, you're just watching TV. (If we imagine that the video models are conscious their experience is probably a bit like that!) If the signal wasn't coherent it would just be snow, static, TV noise. (Or in the case of a neural network probably something bizarre like DeepDream.) But there would still be a signal.