[tburn]

There are two situations that I believe will reveal the answers about consciousness:

1. Complete simulation of a human brain and its synapses. This would allow us to see the various states of the brain during its thought processes, and it would probably confirm the Identity theory philosophy of mind.

2. Recreation of convincing consciousness in AI. This mimicry would reveal that consciousness is indeed an illusion, and would confirm the Functionalism philosophy of mind.

Consciousness is such a tantalizing subject because it seems like it should be explainable using science, but we just don't have the capacity to understand it yet. This is why it's still firmly in the realm of philosophy, and why there are so many pseudoscientific attempts to explain it.