[michaelmrose]

In this case let us substitute the narrow definition of thought and computation by an imitation human as a process which given the current state of the brain/computer and the current state of the universe induces changes in the brain so as to model the state of the universe both now and in response to a hypothetical possible pool of actions such that the actions of model and world become entwined in a way that could be modeled from the inside as the world being the result of choices and from the outside as choices being the result of the world.

This is true even of a chess program that attempts to model the current and possible states to the chess board in a fashion as to bring about a goal by way of selection of moves.

Suppose we take a very precise process and produce an exact physical copy of you. For being artificial it ought to experience the same sorts of experiences as you. The same ought to be true of a computer simulation of same. The same ought to be true for a variety of increasingly large modifications of the original design. After all if billions of humans can pop out divergent versions of humans who are all conscious it seems hard to argue that you are a unique configuration. In fact if we imagine working for the next 1000 years on producing a better human being that we ought to be able to produce beings who no longer regard us as truly human because we lack both subjective experiences they regard as essential and computational capability. Maybe they can hold a million times more data in their head at once and they regard us as squirrels.

These beings might regard our workings as completely explicable and replicatable in many substrates while regarding their own workings at the far limit of their own understanding as inherently beyond all possible understanding.

Both you and they are probably wrong. Searle was an asshole.