RArvay wrote:What I am failing to convey is that (presumably) each of us has an inward experience of our own inward experience, and
that phenomenon, or property, is profoundly different from anything else described in physics. It is in a separate class altogether.
You have not failed to convey this to any of the discussants as far as I can see, and especially to me. Indeed this is what is often refereed to as "consciousness." From Buddha to Descartes to Whitehead to Dennett to Penrose, all have puzzled about it. We understand the issue, but do not necessarily agree with your take on it. In particular, for all we know a robot may well have the "inward experience" of being self-aware in the same sense as you attribute us to have "inward experience." And since you cannot possibly prove otherwise, your assertions about the specialness of "conscious humans" reduce to mere statements of faith. Thus what you have failed to convey is that there is a real puzzle here in the first place. All I gather is an unjustified belief in the specialness of "inward experience", in need of justification.
