I agree that it is the question and criteria which are suspect. And you hazard to mix qualia as a synonym. Is this not a separate aspect of a phenomenon? I wi

I agree that it is the question and criteria which are suspect. And you hazard to mix qualia as a synonym. Is this not a separate aspect of a phenomenon? I will challenge with the simple yet equally provocative idea that consciousness is a feedback mechanism between our biotechnology and the quantum holographic nature of existential reality. Everything alive is made of consciousness and awareness (to be “conscious”) is the tip of the idea-berg. Qualia is the hologram, or shadow cast upon the wall, and consciousness the echo chamber. The real question is, how does this scale among diverse embodiments? Anyone who thinks humans are exclusive, or that existential awareness may arrive from bit state interpolation is a mountain range away form the chasm of philosophy and conjecture. Existential reality is not numbers of states. It is universal potential resolving into state through constructive and destructive interference in the moment of now. Our consciousness is a part of this, not the bit state rendering of modern computation no matter how useful and impressive these have gotten. Quantum holographic memory will explain consciousness, when science catches up with a means to measure such a thing.