[aninhumer]

The parent explicitly hypothesised a conscious program.

You can argue that such a thing is impossible, but assuming that it is, arguing that such a program would be comparable to a shell script is facile.

[JoeAltmaier]

Its a mechanistic argument, that says no machinery is capable of consciousness. How do you decide if software is conscious? For instance, it could print "I'm conscious! Oh! I'm suffering!"

[aninhumer]

>How do you decide if software is conscious?

How do you decide if a human is conscious?

I don't think we know enough about the nature of consciousness to state with certainty that a "machine" is incapable of it.

[JoeAltmaier]

I'm currently residing inside a human right now. I 'know' what consciousness is, at least for me.