@PrettyGnosticMaschine it's an interesting thought experiment. I just interrupted my patient's consciousness with a propofol bolus. It will return reliably within ten minutes of stopping my infusion, and they will be the same person they were before. It is a robust effect. The interruption point was on an enhanced neurotransmitter channel. That's the physical explanation. Now explain why they're the same person. Explain why that person cares about anything. Why doesn't a computer?

@atomicpacemaker Davidx Chalmers had a nice way of putting this: propofol disrupts the brain's activity, not the underlying causal organization. The structure that encodes the person remains, so when activity resumes, the same system continues.

@PrettyGnosticMaschine does a mechanism exist separate from consciousness to keep consciousness intact when it is disturbed, or is that the emergent function of consciousness itself? With enough propofol I can stop the neurons from firing. All of them. I can induce electrical silence. It will dramatically drop the metabolic rate of the brain. After waiting long enough, the person returns. They won't be brain dead, barring bad medical care. Will silicon still work here?

@PrettyGnosticMaschine parsimony! So it's like the bios then? The brain comes online and posts. More interesting than that, there is a question of whether consciousness runs on large scale brain dynamics or large scale brain dynamics run on consciousness. Hmm!?! Likely carbon based. Why? I'm glad you asked. Because carbon based lifeforms have a good reason for consciousness to emerge. A 4 billion year old reason. But it's interesting, isn't it?