What does it mean to be conscious?

As I said before, you won't find, or understand, consciousness by starting from the bottom up. Not in an online discussion where brevity is at least of some concern.

I've read 1000s of pages on the topic, and I've reread a couple of my better books on the subject, and I still am wrapping my head around all the finer points. To ask "how do these equations make consciousness?" is basically asking "Explain everything to me from scratch because I haven't bothered to look into this even a little bit".

That's not meant to be offensive, but you didn't even realize your thread was the same thing Searle's been arguing for some time, and you would know that if you had explored the topic in earnest (it comes up repeatedly, in different books, articles, debates, etc.)

Well, the points I've been making are very understandable to me as well I'm sure you would no more have the patience to explain QM from the bottom up to someone who couldn't imagine quantum tunneling than I am willing to explain consciousness from the bottom up to a dualist. If you're genuinely interested, Dennet does a fantastic job over the course of about 500 pages in "Consciousness Explained".

There are really two ways to address your fundamental issue: 1) completely explain in detail from the bottom up how evolution produced an information processing system that was aware of itself without appealing to metaphysics. 2) explain how dualism is a nonsensical and contradictory explanation that creates an infinite regress and doesn't actually explain anything, but explains it away

Option two is realistic and appropriate in an online forum. Option 1 is not. If you think that anyone can address your issue with just a few hundred words then you severely underestimate the complexity of the system you're trying to understand.

I don't have to understand in detail the current hypotheses on the origins of our universe to acknowledge that appealing to a creator is ridiculous. I could ask someone to flesh out all the theory, all the mathematics, and all the relevant evidence so I could wrap my head around things, or I could trust that a natural explanation is the most logically coherent and discuss the validity of a designer as an explanation.

Do you see the correlation at all?

As for more abstract, addressable topics:

I'm still curious what your answer to this is. You keep saying I'm appealing to dualism, but I don't see how saying a system that processes information about its own states drawing the conclusion that it is a separate entity from the said system is appealing to anything other than the ignorance said system has of its "behind the scenes" workings.

So in other words, the brain itself is conscious, but it SEEMS as if we (brains) are separate from our brains. We're not. We are our brains. That's the illusion. No dualism there. The exact opposite in fact.

Who's apprehending the illusion? The brain. Not a soul, not a separate mind jelly.

 

What does it mean to be conscious:
To sacrifice for a higher purpose

If one was not conscious: they would just follow their base desires until death (acting like an animal)

Being conscious is also being aware of the present moment. To see multiple or parallel existences within the next few seconds according to the choices you are about to make.

Seeing your self in the third person is also a form of consciousness. Not just seeing life with your two eyes but seeing life with your "minds eye"

Consciouses for me is basically being aware of the present so you, and yes YOU can change the outcome of your future.

All things are relative in ones understanding of what something is. Hope this helped

 

Consciousness is an inherintly human-centric model.

"Is it conscious?" basicaly means "To what level does it experience the world like me?"

 

Are you sure data perception and experience are so different? Maybe a Fish doesn't experience pain like you do, but does that remove anything from the idea that a fish feels pain?

I'm not entirely convinved that automation removes the ability to experience. Arguably we are all automatons who recieve experience.