Consciousness (Human, animal, etc) Can Exist Without a Brain

The nervous system seems to transmit numerical data by a nearly periodic pulse train [2]. Weaker stimulus results in a lower frequency, so it seems intensities aretranslated into frequencies, like a frequency modulation function. Under these conditions, only a few digits of precision are possible, but it's more reliable than a computer (where a single bit error could completely mess everything up). The message system used in the nervous system is a statistical one, where in a computer it is an exact one. This information comes from Von Neumann [2].So our computers are not like our nervous systems, or at least not built in the same way. Eventually we will reverse engineer the brain, according to futurologists like Ray Kurzweil. By then, we may come up with better architectures to run computer programs, which may open up possibilities for making progressively more human-like AI. There is no doubt that we are creating better and better AI, which will teach us more about consciousness. If an AI ever does pass the Turing Test, we can ask it "how do you feel" and get a good response. Which is the kind of thing we ask people now to see if they are conscious.---You aren't falling for a fallible argument, so I suppose it was an attempt in vain. Either the hypothesis "consciousnes can't work without a brain", or the negation of that hypothesis has to be true, but "consciousnes can't work without a brain" is the scientific statement that's accepted now. Until we have evidence of anything else, it's all we are sure of. However, the predictions of Ray Kurzweil (many of which come true) are based on more than just hypothesis.---The response that follows from the observation that neurons are not a simple as the fundamental logic gates, is that fundamental logic gates can be used to represent any number to any arbitrary amount of precision. Thus simple logic gates can model analogue processes and digital processes to any level that they may be found in the brain (for example if a 1 mV difference in a neural pulse is significant, then for a range of 50 mV we would need 6 bits. Bits can be added as more precision is needed, to arbitrary precision).Suppose it is more than just analog and digital processes that we need to enable in our hypothetical brain machine. We might need to model quantum mechanical processes. The electron can be in 2 places in once [source], and this may not be straightforward to replicate. Google has built a quantum computer called the D-Wave, and we do understand the idea of "qubits"---With the metaphor, pretending to be an attractive person on the internet - attractiveness is a judgement imposed by the observer, not an innate quality in the observered. Depending on how philosophical you want to get, the idea of a job such as a policeman is a human assigned trait, not necessarily a measurable quantity. All titles and jobs and names are really just arbitrary assignments we give to people.Unless you experience the consciousness that a machine experiences, or you experience the consciousness another human experiences, you will have to settle that both are an illusion of consciousness. With the steady increase in computing power and AI power, it's only a matter of time before we can't tell the difference between a machine talking to us and a human talking to us.---[3] http://www.cnet.com...